Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

The costs of emotional attention: affective processing inhibits subsequent lexico-semantic analysis

Ihssen, Niklas, Heim, Sabine and Keil, Andreas 2007. The costs of emotional attention: affective processing inhibits subsequent lexico-semantic analysis. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19 (12) , pp. 1932-1949. 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.12.1932

[thumbnail of Ihssen 2007.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Download (504kB) | Preview

Abstract

The human brain has evolved to process motivationally relevant information in an optimized manner. The perceptual benefit for emotionally arousing material, termed motivated attention, is indexed by electrocortical amplification at various levels of stimulus analysis. An outstanding issue, particularly on a neuronal level, refers to whether and how perceptual enhancement for arousing signals translates into modified processing of information presented in temporal or spatial proximity to the affective cue. The present studies aimed to examine facilitation and interference effects of task-irrelevant emotional pictures on subsequent word identification. In the context of forced-choice lexical decision tasks, pictures varying in hedonic valence and emotional arousal preceded word/ pseudoword targets. Across measures and experiments, high-arousing compared to low-arousing pictures were associated with impaired processing of word targets. Arousing pleasant and unpleasant pictures prolonged word reaction times irrespective of stimulus-onset asynchrony (80 msec, 200 msec, 440 msec) and salient semantic category differences (e.g., erotica vs. mutilation pictures). On a neuronal level, interference was reflected in reduced N1 responses (204–264 msec) to both target types. Paralleling behavioral effects, suppression of the late positivity (404–704 msec) was more pronounced for word compared to pseudoword targets. Regional source modeling indicated that early reduction effects originated from inhibited cortical activity in posterior areas of the left inferior temporal cortex associated with orthographic processing. Modeling of later reduction effects argues for interference in distributed semantic networks comprising left anterior temporal and parietal sources. Thus, affective processing interferes with subsequent lexico-semantic analysis along the ventral stream.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Psychology
Additional Information: Pdf uploaded in accordance with publisher's policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0898-929X/ (accessed 26/02/2014).
Publisher: MIT Press
ISSN: 0898-929x
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 30 March 2016
Last Modified: 10 May 2023 03:48
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/33349

Citation Data

Cited 47 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics