Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 17, Issue 4, December 2002, Pages 1684-1692
NeuroImage

Regular Article
Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential Topography during Processing of Emotional Valence in Healthy Subjects

https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1298Get rights and content

Abstract

TheInternational Affective Picture System (IAPS) is increasingly used in brain imaging studies to examine emotional processes. This task allows valence and arousal content to be systematically investigated; however, previous studies have generally failed to select images that vary in one dimension as well as hold constant the variability on the other dimension. In addition, no studies have investigated the temporal structure associated with the conscious, ongoing processing of emotional stimuli following systematic selection of IAPS images. The aim of the present study was therefore to use steady-state probe topography (SSPT) to examine the steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) associated with the processing of pleasant and unpleasant images low in arousal content. Seventy-five IAPS images, categorized as unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant, were presented to 16 healthy subjects while brain activity was recorded from 64 scalp sites. Analysis subtracted the activity associated with the presentation of neutral images from the activity associated with the presentation of pleasant as well as unpleasant images. Results demonstrate that both pleasant and unpleasant valence is associated with transient, widespread, and bilateral frontal SSVEP latency reductions. Unpleasant images were also associated with a transient bilateral anterior frontal amplitude decrease. Latency reductions are interpreted as increases in neural information processing speed, while amplitude reductions are interpreted in the current paper as analogous to an event-related desynchronisation commonly associated with the alpha bandwidth. These key findings support previous literature in terms of there being substantial overlap in frontal neural circuitry when the brain processes pleasant and unpleasant valence relative to neutral valence.

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    To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed at Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia, Fax: +61-3-921455225. E-mail: [email protected].

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