Cao Gai, Liu Peng
School of Public Administration/ School of Emergency Management, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.
PeerJ. 2021 Feb 11;9:e10876. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10876. eCollection 2021.
Previous research related to the motor interference effect from dangerous objects indicated that delayed responses to dangerous objects were associated with more positive parietal P3 amplitudes, suggesting that great attentional resources were allocated to evaluate the level of danger (i.e., negative valence). However, arousal covaried with valence in this research. Together with previous studies in which the P3 amplitude was found to be increased along with a higher arousal level in the parietal lobe, we raised the issue that more positive parietal P3 amplitudes might also be affected by a high arousal level. To clarify whether valence or arousal impacted the motor interference effect, this study used a motor priming paradigm mixed with a Go/NoGo task and manipulated the valence (negative, neutral and positive) and arousal (medium and high) of target stimuli. Analysis of the behavioral results identified a significant motor interference effect (longer reaction times (RTs) in the negative valence condition than in the neutral valence condition) at the medium arousal level and an increased effect size (increment of RT difference) at the high arousal level. The results indicated that negative valence stimuli may interfere with the prime elicited motor preparation more strongly at the high arousal level than at the medium arousal level. The ERP results identified larger centroparietal P3 amplitudes for the negative valence condition than for the neutral valence condition at a high arousal level. However, the inverse result, i.e., lower centroparietal P3 amplitudes for the negative valence condition than for the neutral valence condition, was observed at a medium arousal level. The ERP results further indicated that the effect size of the behavioral motor interference effect increased because subjects are more sensitive to the negative valence stimuli at the high arousal level than at the medium arousal level. Furthermore, the motor interference effect is related to the negative valence rather than emotionality of the target stimuli because different result patterns emerged between the positive and negative valence conditions. Detailed processes underlying the interaction between valence and arousal effects are discussed.
先前有关危险物体运动干扰效应的研究表明，对危险物体的延迟反应与顶叶P3波幅更正向有关，这表明分配了大量注意力资源来评估危险程度（即负性效价）。然而，在该研究中，唤醒与效价存在共变关系。结合先前的研究，其中发现顶叶的P3波幅会随着更高的唤醒水平而增加，我们提出了一个问题，即顶叶P3波幅更正向也可能受到高唤醒水平的影响。为了阐明是效价还是唤醒影响了运动干扰效应，本研究采用了一种与Go/NoGo任务相结合的运动启动范式，并操纵了目标刺激的效价（负性、中性和正性）和唤醒水平（中等和高）。行为结果分析发现在中等唤醒水平下存在显著的运动干扰效应（负性效价条件下的反应时比中性效价条件下更长），在高唤醒水平下效应大小增加（反应时差异的增量）。结果表明，在高唤醒水平下，负性效价刺激可能比中等唤醒水平下更强烈地干扰启动引发的运动准备。ERP结果表明，在高唤醒水平下，负性效价条件下的中央顶叶P3波幅比中性效价条件下更大。然而，在中等唤醒水平下观察到相反的结果，即负性效价条件下的中央顶叶P3波幅比中性效价条件下更低。ERP结果进一步表明，行为运动干扰效应的效应大小增加是因为与中等唤醒水平相比，受试者在高唤醒水平下对负性效价刺激更敏感。此外，运动干扰效应与目标刺激的负性效价而非情绪性有关，因为在正性和负性效价条件之间出现了不同的结果模式。文中讨论了效价和唤醒效应之间相互作用的详细过程。
