Hinojosa J A, Albert J, López-Martín S, Carretié L
Instituto Pluridisciplinar, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Instituto Pluridisciplinar, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Brain Cogn. 2014 Jun;87:109-21. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2014.03.008. Epub 2014 Apr 14.
Although divergences between explicit and implicit processing of affective content during word comprehension have been reported, the underlying nature of those differences remains in dispute. Prior studies focused on either the timing or the spatial location of the effects. The present study examined the precise dynamics of the processing of negative words when attention is directed to affective content or to non-emotional properties by capitalizing on fine temporal resolution of the event-related potentials (ERPs) and recent advances in source localization. Tasks were used that required accessing knowledge about different semantic properties of negative and neutral words. In the direct task, participants' attention was directed towards emotional information. By contrast, subjects had to decide whether the words' referent could be touched or not in the indirect task. Regardless of being processed explicitly or implicitly, negative compared to neutral words were associated with more errors and greater key pressure responses. Electrophysiologically, affective processing was reflected in larger amplitudes to negative words in a late positive component (LPC) at the scalp level, and in increased activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) at the voxel level. Interestingly, an interaction between emotion and type of task was observed. Negative words were associated with more errors, larger anterior distributed LPC amplitudes and increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the direct compared to the indirect task. This LPC effect was modulated by the concreteness of the words. Finally, a task effect was found in a posterior negativity around 220ms, with enhanced amplitudes to words in the direct compared to the indirect task. The present results suggest that negative information contained in written language is processed irrespective of controlled attention is directed to it or not, but that this processing is reinforced in the former case.
尽管在单词理解过程中情感内容的显性和隐性加工之间的差异已有报道，但这些差异的潜在本质仍存在争议。先前的研究要么关注效应的时间，要么关注其空间位置。本研究利用事件相关电位（ERP）的精细时间分辨率和源定位的最新进展，考察了在注意力指向情感内容或非情感属性时，负性词加工的精确动态过程。使用了要求获取关于负性和中性词不同语义属性知识的任务。在直接任务中，参与者的注意力指向情感信息。相比之下，在间接任务中，受试者必须判断单词的所指对象是否可以触摸。无论进行显性加工还是隐性加工，与中性词相比，负性词都与更多错误和更大的按键压力反应相关。在电生理方面，情感加工在头皮水平的晚期正成分（LPC）中表现为对负性词有更大的波幅，在体素水平的前辅助运动区（pre-SMA）活动增加。有趣的是，观察到了情绪与任务类型之间的交互作用。与间接任务相比，在直接任务中，负性词与更多错误、更大的前部LPC波幅以及后扣带回皮层（PCC）活动增加有关。这种LPC效应受到单词具体性的调节。最后，在约220毫秒时发现了一个后部负波的任务效应，与间接任务相比，直接任务中单词的波幅增强。目前的结果表明，书面语言中包含的负性信息无论是否受到控制性注意都会被加工，但在前一种情况下这种加工会得到加强。
