Abstract
BackgroundVarious affective disorders are linked with enhanced processing of unpleasant stimuli. However, this link is likely a result of the dominant negative mood derived from the disorder, rather than a result of the disorder itself. Additionally, little is currently known about the influence of mood on the susceptibility to emotional events in healthy populations.MethodEvent-Related Potentials (ERP) were recorded for pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures while subjects performed an emotional/neutral picture classification task during positive, neutral, or negative mood induced by instrumental Chinese music.ResultsLate Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes were positively related to the affective arousal of pictures. The emotional responding to unpleasant pictures, indicated by the unpleasant-neutral differences in LPPs, was enhanced during negative compared to neutral and positive moods in the entire LPP time window (600–1000 ms). The magnitude of this enhancement was larger with increasing self-reported negative mood. In contrast, this responding was reduced during positive compared to neutral mood in the 800–1000 ms interval. Additionally, LPP reactions to pleasant stimuli were similar across positive, neutral and negative moods except those in the 800–900 ms interval.ImplicationsNegative mood intensifies the humans' susceptibility to unpleasant events in healthy individuals. In contrast, music-induced happy mood is effective in reducing the susceptibility to these events. Practical implications of these findings were discussed.
Highlights
Various affective disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) (Post-traumatic stress disorder), are known to be associated with enhanced brain processing of unpleasant stimuli [1,2,3,4,5]
Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes were positively related to the affective arousal of pictures
The emotional responding to unpleasant pictures, indicated by the unpleasant-neutral differences in LPPs, was enhanced during negative compared to neutral and positive moods in the entire LPP time window (600–1000 ms)
Summary
Various affective disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), are known to be associated with enhanced brain processing of unpleasant stimuli [1,2,3,4,5]. Researchers used a variety of behavioral tasks, such as dot-probe and color-naming tasks, to find that clinically anxious individuals were equipped with a biased attentional sensitivity for threatening stimuli [3,6,7]. These results were confirmed by later event-related potential studies displaying enhanced early potential responding to threat-related stimuli in highly anxious individuals [5,8]. Little is currently known about the influence of mood on the susceptibility to emotional events in healthy populations
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