Emotional intensity modulates vocal emotion decoding in a late stage of processing: an event-related potential study.

The current study aimed to clarify the role of emotional intensity in vocal emotion decoding and its time course. Behavioral responses and electroencephalograms for vocalizations with different levels of emotional intensity were recorded while participants performed emotion identification on neutral-happy continua. It was found that the rates of happiness and P300 amplitudes increased as emotional intensity increased, whereas N100 and P200 components differed only between happy and neutral vocalizations. These findings suggest that emotional intensity is most likely decoded at a late stage of vocal emotion perception.