Repetitive exposure: brain and reflex measures of emotion and attention.

Effects of massed repetition on the modulation of the late positive potential elicited during affective picture viewing were investigated in two experiments. Despite a difference in the number of repetitions across studies (from 5 to 30), results were quite similar: The late positive potential continued to be enhanced when participants viewed emotional, compared to neutral, pictures. On the other hand, massed repetition did prompt a reduction in the late positive potential that was most pronounced for emotional pictures. Startle probe P3 amplitude generally increased with repetition, suggesting diminished attention allocation to repeated pictures. The blink reflex, however, continued to be modulated by hedonic valence, despite massive massed repetition. Taken together, the data suggest that the amplitude of the late positive potential during picture viewing reflects both motivational significance and attention allocation.

[1]  Peter J. Lang,et al.  Attention and Orienting : Sensory and Motivational Processes , 1997 .

[2]  M. Bradley,et al.  Probing affective pictures: attended startle and tone probes. , 1998, Psychophysiology.

[3]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  Attitudes to the Right: Evaluative Processing is Associated with Lateralized Late Positive Event-Related Brain Potentials , 1996 .

[4]  M. Davis,et al.  Mechanisms of fear extinction , 2007, Molecular Psychiatry.

[5]  N. Rothwell,et al.  Cytokines and acute neurodegeneration , 1997, Molecular Psychiatry.

[6]  P. Lang,et al.  The startle probe response: a new measure of emotion? , 1988, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[7]  A. Angrilli,et al.  Visual evoked potentials, heart rate responses and memory to emotional pictorial stimuli. , 1997, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[8]  P. Lang.  International affective picture system (IAPS) : affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual , 2005 .

[9]  Vera Ferrari,et al.  Directed and Motivated Attention during Processing of Natural Scenes , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[10]  Vera Ferrari,et al.  Repetition and Event-related Potentials: Distinguishing Early and Late Processes in Affective Picture Perception , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[11]  Vera Ferrari,et al.  Repetitive picture processing: Autonomic and cortical correlates , 2006, Brain Research.

[12]  Michael E. Dawson,et al.  Startle Modification: Implications for Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Clinical Science , 2008 .

[13]  M. Bradley,et al.  Brain potentials in perception: picture complexity and emotional arousal. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[14]  M. Bradley,et al.  Startle Modification: Affect and the Startle Reflex , 1999 .

[15]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion, novelty, and the startle reflex: habituation in humans. , 1993, Behavioral neuroscience.

[16]  M. Bradley.  Natural selective attention: orienting and emotion. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[17]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Handbook Of Psychophysiology , 2019 .

[18]  Peter J. Lang,et al.  Appetitive and Defensive Motivation Is the Substrate of Emotion , 2008 .

[19]  Maurizio Codispoti,et al.  Fuzzy picture processing: effects of size reduction and blurring on emotional processing. , 2008, Emotion.

[20]  Peter J. Lang,et al.  Detecting Novelty and Significance , 2010, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[21]  Maurizio Codispoti,et al.  Unmasking emotion: exposure duration and emotional engagement. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[22]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion and motivation. , 2007 .

[23]  M. Bradley,et al.  Brain potentials in affective picture processing: covariation with autonomic arousal and affective report , 2000, Biological Psychology.

[24]  Maurizio Codispoti,et al.  A multi-process account of startle modulation during affective perception. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[25]  M. Bradley,et al.  Motivated attention: Affect, activation, and action. , 1997 .

[26]  B. Rockstroh,et al.  Statistical control of artifacts in dense array EEG/MEG studies. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[27]  V. Johnston,et al.  Multiple P3s to emotional stimuli and their theoretical significance. , 1986, Psychophysiology.