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Updated: Jul 14, 2026
The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content
Published on: June 29, 2016
[Spatiotemporal pattern analysis of event-related potentials elicited by emotional Stroop task]
1Department of Neurology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. lqfreewater@ tom.com
Objective:
To investigate the spatiotemporal pattern of event-related potentials (ERPs) induced by emotional Stroop task.
Methods:
The ERPs of 19 channels were recorded from 13 healthy subjects while performing emotional Stroop task by pressing the buttons representing the colors in which the words denoting different emotions were displayed. A repeated-measures factorial design was adopted with three levels (word valence: positive, neutral and negative). The result of ERP analysis was presented in the form of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) of F value.
Results:
No significant difference was found in either reaction time or accuracy. The SPM of ERPs suggested significant emotional valence effects in the occipital region (200-220 ms), the left and central frontal regions (270-300 ms), and the bilateral temporal and parietal cortex (560-580 and 620-630 ms, respectively).
Conclusion:
Processing of task-irrelevant emotional valence information involves the dynamic operation of extensive brain regions. The ERPs are more sensitive than the behavioral indices in emotional evaluation.
