Larger Late Positive Component Research Articles

Bringing patients out of the gloom: Examining the effects of patient power and affect labeling on emotional experience reflected in emotional judgement

ObjectiveNegative emotions are common among patients in medical settings. It is important to investigate impacts of patient power and affect labeling on emotional experience in patients. MethodsBehavioral judgments and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants with high or low patient power made emotional judgments (positive, negative) about neutral faces, as well as investigating how affect labeling (affect labeling, viewing) influenced emotional judgments about neutral faces in participants with low patient power. ResultsIndividuals with low patient power made more and faster negative emotion judgements. A larger late positive component (LPC) amplitude was found in negative emotion judgments for individuals with low patient power, a component related to allocation of attentional resources to motivationally salient stimuli. Affect labeling elicited less and slower negative emotion judgments in individuals with low patient power. ConclusionsThese results suggest that low patient power triggers negative emotion, which can be reduced by affect labeling. Practice implicationsThe current findings provide valuable insights into reducing negative emotions in patients, fostering promising targets for training for medical professionals and education for patients aiming to ensure more humanistic and higher-quality care delivery.

Interpersonal distance affects advisors’ responses to feedback on their advice: Evidence from event-related potentials

Advisors typically receive two types of feedback: whether their advice is accepted and benefits the advisee. However, the effect of interpersonal distance on advisors' feedback responses remains unexplored. Therefore, to examine this association, we used an advice-giving task in which participants acted as advisors to either friends or strangers through event-related potentials (ERP). Participants received feedback reflecting whether their advice was accepted or rejected and the advisee’s outcome (gains or losses). Participants’ electroencephalograms were recorded when receiving feedback. Results revealed that rejections from friends elicited stronger feedback-related negativity (FRN) than acceptances from friends. Furthermore, acceptances from friends triggered larger late positive components (LPCs) than rejections from friends. No such effects were observed when the advisee was a stranger. Moreover, a stronger FRN was observed for losses than gains when strangers accepted the advice; however, this difference was not observed when strangers rejected the advice. In addition, friends’ gains elicited a larger P300 than losses, regardless of whether friends accepted the advice; however, for strangers, this P300 difference was observed only when the advice was accepted. When strangers accepted the advice, gains elicited larger LPCs than losses; however, this difference was not observed when strangers rejected the advice. These results revealed that the interpersonal distance between people affected how they responded to feedback on advice. This was demonstrated by the neural responses related to expectations, motivational significance, and emotional arousal. It also suggests that the psychological processes by which interpersonal distance influences feedback processing change over the stages.

The cognitive neural mechanism of trait anxiety influences mind wandering: An ERP study

Converging evidence from behavioral and neuroscience studies demonstrated that our attention to the external world is influenced by emotion, especially anxiety. However, little is known about how trait anxiety influences neural and behavioral responses during mind wandering. The present study aimed to examine the neural and cognitive time courses of how trait anxiety affects mind wandering. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 20 individuals with high trait anxiety and 20 with low trait anxiety when they performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in which they were asked to respond to frequent ‘‘nontargets’’ (digits 0–6, 8–9) but withhold responses to infrequent ‘‘targets’’ (the digit 7). We compared the behavioral performance and electroencephalographic waves between the high and low trait anxiety groups during states of “mind wandering” (fail to withhold a response to the target number) and being “on-task” (correctly withhold a response to the target number). Results showed that a larger late positive component (LPC, 400–950 ms) was elicited when participants were “on task” than when they were mind wandering. Additionally, a larger late slow waveform (LSW, 950–1050 ms) was elicited in the high trait anxiety group than in the low trait anxiety group. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between self-reported trait anxiety scores and the LSW amplitudes during mind wandering. It was proposed that the effect of trait anxiety on the cognitive neural mechanism underlying attentional processing was primarily reflected in a later process involving the redistribution of cognitive resources.

Long-term sport experience influences general action-related lexical semantic processing: ERP evidence

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate whether long-term domain-specific sport experience influences general action-related lexical semantic processing. Wushu (martial arts) athletes and non-athletes were asked to complete a lexical decision task in which nouns served as targets primed by general action-related or action-unrelated verbs. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that target nouns primed by action-related verbs elicited reduced N400s compared to those primed by action-unrelated verbs for both groups. Moreover, target nouns primed by action-related verbs elicited larger late positive components (LPCs) than those primed by action-unrelated verbs only for wushu athletes and not for non-athletes. These results suggest that long-term domain-specific sport experience facilitates general action-related lexical semantic processing and support an association between the sensory-motor system and language comprehension.

Neural Mechanisms of the Conscious and Subliminal Processing of Facial Attractiveness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the neural activity evoked by facial attractiveness in conscious and subliminal conditions. The 41 participants judged facial attractiveness in a conscious condition and a subliminal condition (backward masking paradigm). The event-related potential (ERP) analysis indicated that in the conscious condition, more attractive faces elicited a longer N1 (80-120 ms) latency than less attractive faces. Moreover, more attractive female faces elicited a larger late positive component (LPC) (350-550 ms) amplitude than less attractive female faces. In the subliminal condition, more attractive faces elicited a longer P1 (140-180 ms) latency than less attractive faces. The present study demonstrated that more attractive faces evoked different early-stage ERPs from that evoked by less attractive faces in both conscious and subliminal conditions. However, the processing of facial attractiveness is obviously weakened in the subliminal condition.

Empathy for pain in individuals influenced by moral identity: Evidence from an ERP study

Both morality and empathy are crucial in the construction of human society. The influence of morality on empathy also deserves researchers’ attention. This study used event-related potential techniques to control the degree of moral identity of participants through writing tasks and deeply explored the psychological processes and neural mechanisms of moral identity affecting pain empathy. Behavioral results for picture type showed that the response time to the pain pictures was longer than the nonpain pictures, the accuracy of pain pictures was lower than that of nonpain pictures and ratings of pain pictures were rated higher than non-pain picture. Behavioral results for moral identity showed that there were no significant differences in response time, accuracy, and rating. The interaction between picture type and moral identity was not significant. The ERP results showed that people with high moral identity had higher levels of empathy than those with low moral identity, and pain pictures induced smaller N2 amplitudes and larger Late Positive Component (LPC) amplitudes than nonpain pictures. For people with low moral identity, the pain picture amplitudes were not significantly different from the N2 and LPC amplitudes induced by the nonpain pictures. These results suggest that moral identity affects and moderates the early processing of emotional empathy in the N2 representation and the late processing of cognitive empathy in the LPC representation. Individuals with high moral identity are more likely to induce early automated processing of pain to others when stimulated by pain pictures, automatically sharing the negative emotions of others, which is manifested as having more emotional empathy. Individuals with high moral identity exhibit a more refined analytical evaluation of pain pictures and a conscious, top-down control of processing when stimulated by pain pictures, which is manifested as having more cognitive empathy. Whether in the emotional empathy stage or in the cognitive empathy stage, moral identity has an important impact on pain empathy, and higher moral identity is the premise of empathy for the pain of others.

Violations of Lab-Learned Phonological Patterns Elicit a Late Positive Component.

The experimental study of artificial language learning has become a widely used means of investigating the predictions of theories of language learning and representation. Although much is now known about the generalizations that learners make from various kinds of data, relatively little is known about how those representations affect speech processing. This paper presents an event-related potential (ERP) study of brain responses to violations of lab-learned phonotactics. Novel words that violated a learned phonotactic constraint elicited a larger Late Positive Component (LPC) than novel words that satisfied it. Similar LPCs have been found for violations of natively acquired linguistic structure, as well as for violations of other types of abstract generalizations, such as musical structure. We argue that lab-learned phonotactic generalizations are represented abstractly and affect the evaluation of speech in a manner that is similar to natively acquired syntactic and phonological rules.

Post-interval potentials in temporal judgements

Research suggests that post-stimulus positive deflections could be associated with timing. We compared offset-locked potentials N1, P2, N1P2, and late positive component (LPC) in temporal generalization and temporal bisection—with visual probe intervals. In both tasks, the LPC amplitude decreased with the duration of the current probe interval. A larger LPC was found after shorter intervals, whereas other ERP amplitudes did not change between tasks or across durations. We also found that the LPC for different responses indicates subjective time. We discussed our findings in relation to theories of human timing.

Cost or advantage? Intra-sentential language switching could facilitate L2 emotional words' comprehension in auditory modality

Language switching is encountered commonly and inevitably in bilingual society and often induces costs for target language's production. However, for auditory words' comprehension at sentence level, the limited research showed divergent findings. Some research observed comprehension costs when the language of target words was switched with the code of sentential contexts kept constant; but a potential switch advantage was also showed in non-dominant targets' processing when sentential context switches occurred. Additionally, it's well documented that the words' emotional connotations play a key role in both L1 and L2 word comprehension. Therefore, we aimed to explore which switch effect would occur when bilinguals comprehended L1/L2 emotional target nouns in auditory modality at behavioral and neural level through a visual object selection task. Behaviorally, switch related costs occurred in L1 targets' comprehension, whereas advantage effects were found in L2. Moreover, greater switch advantage occurred for positive and negative targets than for neutral ones. Consistently, larger LPC (Late Positive Component) defection was elicited for L2-Switch trials relative to L2-Nonswitch trials and the differences of LPC's amplitude could predict the behavioral advantageous effects of switching in nondominant targets' comprehension, which suggest that language switching lead to deeper re-analyses for emotional words. Taken together, it's suggested that bilinguals can adaptively utilize top-down (sentential prediction) and bottom-up (words' emotional information) cues to access weaker L2 representations.

Central nervous activity during an emotional Stroop task in fibromyalgia syndrome

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition of widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like depression, fatigue and cognitive impairments. In addition to central nervous pain sensitization, emotional dysregulation may be involved in FMS pathogenesis. This study investigated emotional influences on cognitive processing in FMS. Event-related potentials and theta oscillations were recorded during an emotional Stroop task including positive, negative, and neutral adjectives in 36 FMS patients and 35 controls. Patients had larger P3 amplitudes and greater theta power than controls, independent of the emotional word content. In patients, but not controls, negative words were associated with a larger late positive component (LPC) amplitude than positive words. No group difference was seen for P1, early posterior negativity or N4. Reaction times (RTs) were longer in patients than controls, independent of emotional word content. The P3 and theta oscillation findings suggest greater cognitive effort and attentional mobilization in FMS, which is needed to overcome the reduction of attentional resources resulting from central nervous pain sensitization. Although RTs do not support attentional bias in FMS, emotional modulation of the LPC amplitude may reflect preferential central nervous processing of negative information, which could contribute to pain and affective symptoms characterizing FMS. Access to research dataThe research data of the study are available to the public via the Open Science Framework repository (OSF: https://osf.io/tsyre/).

Metaphorical representation modulates the weight-embodiment effect: Evidence from behavioral- and event-related-potential-based experiments

In this study, the representation of sensation experiences was manipulated to investigate the effect of cognition on the embodiment process. Participants used two computer mouse devices (one heavy and one light) to categorize currency words in terms of value. The default “weight-importance” association (Experiment 1) and a manipulated “weight-encumbrance” association (Experiment 2) were applied to examine the modulation effect of metaphorical representation on weight embodiment. In the traditional association, a larger late positive component (LPC) and faster RTs were found when participants responded to high-value currency words with the heavy mouse and to low-value currency words with the light mouse (congruent condition) when compared to the reversed (incongruent) stimuli-response condition. In the manipulated association, a larger LPC around the central-parietal areas was found in the incongruent condition than in the congruent condition. These results suggest that the metaphorical representation of weight modulates the weight-embodiment effect.

Eye region as a predictor of holistic facial aesthetic judgment: An eventrelated potential study

Event-related potentials (ERP) play an important role in the early detection of emotional arousal. Previous studies of aesthetics have shown that the positive component appearing around 200 ms after stimulus (P2) and the larger late positive component (LPC) are closely related to the early stage of aesthetic judgment. We investigated the temporal features of facial aesthetic judgment on the basis of facial features by using the ERP technique. Participants were instructed to predict holistic face aesthetic level based on the regions of eyes, mouth, or nose. Behavioral results show that holistic score predictions based on the eye region were no different to holistic aesthetic ratings. The ERP analysis results show that beautiful eyes and faces elicited a smaller P2 amplitude and LPC amplitude when judging the holistic aesthetic. The P2 effect of facial aesthetics may reflect automatic processing of facial aesthetics and the difference in LPC may be related to motivational attention to facial aesthetics. Because of the similar ERP effect between the holistic facial aesthetic judgment and the aesthetic judgment of eye region, this region may play a significant role in predicting holistic facial aesthetics. The implication is that the eyes are not only a window to the soul, but also a benchmark of beauty.

Imagery processing in action memory–mental imagery is necessary to the subject-performed task effect

ABSTRACT The generation of the subject-performed task (SPT) effect in action memory involves multiple factors, including imagery processing, but its role is unclear. This study uses event-related potential (ERP) technology to explore it in the SPT effect by controlling different encoding types (performance encoding with open eyes or closed eyes, imagery encoding, verbal encoding). Behavioural results showed that the correct rate of recognition under the first three conditions was significantly larger than it for verbal encoding, and there was an SPT effect. The ERP and behavioural results were consistent, and the SPT effect was also found, indicating that the effect could be caused by both performance and imagery encoding. At the Cz electrode site, performance and imagery encoding both induced larger late positive components than verbal encoding. This late positive component could indicate that imagery processing improves memory performance. This study showed that the imagery processing is necessary to the SPT effect.

The influence of the cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect on audiovisual integration.

Previous studies have shown that the cross-modal pre-preparation effect is an important factor for audiovisual integration. However, the facilitating influence of the pre-preparation effect on the integration of emotional cues remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the emotional pre-preparation effect during the multistage process of audiovisual integration. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a synchronous or asynchronous integration task with fearful or neutral stimuli. The results indicated that, compared with the sum of the unisensory presentation of visual (V) and auditory (A) stimuli (A+V), only fearful audiovisual stimuli induced a decreased N1 and an enhanced P2; this was not found for the neutral stimuli. Moreover, the fearful stimuli triggered a larger P2 than the neutral stimuli in the audiovisual condition, but not in the sum of the combined (A+V) waveforms. Our findings imply that, in the early perceptual processing stage and perceptual fine processing stage, fear improves the processing efficiency of the emotional audiovisual integration. In the last cognitively assessing stage, the fearful audiovisual induced a larger late positive component (LPC) than the neutral audiovisual. Moreover, the asynchronous-audiovisual induced a greater LPC than the synchronous-audiovisual during the 400-550 ms period. The different integration effects between the fearful and neutral stimuli may reflect the existence of distinct mechanisms of the pre-preparation in terms of the emotional dimension. In light of these results, we present a cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect involving a three-phase emotional audiovisual integration.

Tension Experience Induced By Nested Structures In Music.

Tension experience is the basis for music emotion. In music, discrete elements are always organized into complex nested structures to convey emotion. However, the processing of music tension in the nested structure remains unknown. The present study investigated the tension experience induced by the nested structure and the underlying neural mechanisms, using a continuous tension rating task and electroencephalography (EEG) at the same time. Thirty musicians listened to music chorale sequences with non-nested, singly nested and doubly nested structures and were required to rate their real-time tension experience. Behavioral data indicated that the tension experience induced by the nested structure had more fluctuations than the non-nested structure, and the difference was mainly exhibited in the process of tension induction rather than tension resolution. However, the EEG data showed that larger late positive components (LPCs) were elicited by the ending chords in the nested structure compared with the non-nested structure, reflecting the difference in cognitive integration for long-distance structural dependence. The discrepancy between resolution experience and neural responses revealed the non-parallel relations between emotion and cognition. Furthermore, the LPC elicited by the doubly nested structure showed a smaller scalp distribution than the singly nested structure, indicating the more difficult processing of the doubly nested structure. These findings revealed the dynamic tension experience induced by the nested structure and the influence of nested type, shedding new light on the relationship between structure and tension in music.

Tactile perception of skin: research on late positive component of event-related potentials evoked by friction

During tactile perception, the electrical system in the brain will respond to the changes in vibration, friction, and surface properties between the perceived surface and human skin. To establish the relationship between tactile perception and friction, 64-channel Neuroscan event-related potential (ERP) system and a three-axis force sensor were used to obtain electroencephalograph (EEG) and friction signals during fingers exploring surfaces. An oddball variation mode was applied to produce the late positive component (LPC) of ERP. Three fabric samples with different friction coefficient were chosen. The results indicate that LPC amplitude is affected by friction. High friction leads to high LPC amplitude. LPC latency is related to difference of friction. Large difference of friction between samples induces small LPC latency. During tactile perception, the applied normal load of male is larger than that of female. Tactile perception is effected by gender. Female has larger LPC latency than male, indicating female are more sensitive to recognize fabrics. This fundamental study could provide theory support to the related researches.

Updating emotional information in daily language comprehension: The influence of topic shifts

Abstract Tracking and updating emotional information in daily language use is essential for successful comprehension and communication. Using an event-related potential technique, we investigated how the updating of emotional information was influenced by changes in topic with two-pair conversational discourses. The first pair established a topic and a kind of emotional information. The second pair either maintained or changed the topic of the first pair. The description of the topic within the second pair contained a critical word that either maintained or shifted the emotional valence of the first pair. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for both the topic words and the emotion words. We found that the topic-shifted words elicited a larger P2, a larger N400, and a larger late positive component (LPC) than the topic-maintained words. More importantly, we found that emotion updating elicited an enhanced sustained N400 in the topic-maintained discourses. On the other hand, emotion updating induced a pronounced LPC in the topic-shifted discourses. These results suggest that topic shift captures more cognitive resources for its own processing and new substructure building, which further affects the processing of emotion updating. Our findings demonstrated an active use of topic information in guiding emotion updating during natural language comprehension.

Processing corrective focus and information focus at different positions: an electrophysiological investigation

ABSTRACTFocus is the most emphasised constituent of a sentence and either marks information that is newly asserted or indicates a contrast between current information and its alternatives. To investigate how readers process information focus (IF) and corrective focus (CF) at different positions in sentences, participants were visually presented with dialogues through a sentence comprehension task. The results showed that focus elicited a larger P2 and late positive component (LPC) than background, possibly reflecting a process of attention allocation and immediate discourse updating. Additionally, IF elicited a larger P2 than CF at the clause-medial position, while CF elicited a larger LPC than IF at the clause-final position, indicating that readers use various strategies to process the two kinds of focus at the different positions. The present study suggests that focus processing is influenced by both context and focus position.

Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves language control during language switching

Currently, there is increasing attention on how to best improve language control efficiency and minimize cross-language interference in bilinguals. Previous studies have demonstrated that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) plays an important role in inhibiting unrelated stimuli. The current study applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during language switching to determine whether modulation of rDLPFC would affect language control mechanisms. All the participants have undergone three types of stimulations: cathodal stimulation, anodal stimulation and sham stimulation. The sequence of three stimulations was counterbalanced across participants. After each stimulation, participants performed picture naming task for language switching. Unbalanced bilinguals exhibited a larger late positive component (LPC) in switching to the weaker language than to the dominant one and similar L1 and L2 switch costs only in the cathodal tDCS (C-tDCS) session. Further analyses showed that the differences of switch costs (L1 switch costs – L2 switch costs) in the C-tDCS session were smaller than in the sham-tDCS (S-tDCS) session. Results were largely consistent with the assumption that cathodal stimulation improving inhibitory control abilities of unbalanced bilinguals to help them better inhibit interference. Another possibility is that cathodal stimulation also worked in other brain areas (e.g., supplementary motor area), which potentially altered unbalanced bilinguals’ speech planning or abilities to encode task sets.

Impulsive personality dimensions are associated with altered behavioral performance and neural responses in the monetary incentive delay task.

Individual differences in dimensions of impulsivity personality including disinhibition and sensation seeking modulate approach responses to reinforcing stimuli, such as drugs and money. The current study examined the effects of monetary incentive on both behavioral performance and electrophysiological activity among individuals varying in disinhibition and sensation seeking. The monetary incentive delay (MID) task was completed under electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Behavioral data showed that higher disinhibition and sensation-seeking were associated with lower performance accuracy. Event-related potential (ERP) data showed that high reinforcement cues elicited a larger late positive component (LPC) than other conditions among high disinhibition participants, indicating its strong emotional influence. Additionally, in the neutral incentive condition, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by correct outcomes was larger than that elicited by incorrect outcomes in the high disinhibition group only. This novel finding indicates that high disinhibition participants were less likely to expect correct outcomes compared to incorrect outcomes in the neutral incentive condition. Finally, the P3 component elicited by outcome presentation showed an interaction between two impulsivity dimensions; when disinhibition level was low, the P3 was larger among high than low sensation seeking participants.