Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior01:28

Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior

Automatic processing refers to the cognitive operations that occur without conscious intent or awareness, playing a fundamental role in shaping social cognition and behavior. These processes enable individuals to navigate complex social environments efficiently by relying on mental shortcuts and pre-existing knowledge structures known as schemas. One of the most influential mechanisms underlying automatic processing is priming, which subtly activates mental representations through exposure to...
The Influence of Affect on Cognition01:29

The Influence of Affect on Cognition

Positive affect significantly influences cognitive processes, including evaluation, memory, creativity, and social judgments. Compared to negative affect, positive emotional states promote more favorable interpretations of stimuli, cognitive flexibility, and heuristic processing. These effects highlight emotions' powerful role in shaping how individuals perceive, remember, and interact with the world.Influence on Evaluation and AttributionWhen individuals experience positive affect, they are...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
First Impression01:09

First Impression

First impressions play a crucial role in social perception, shaping how individuals assess others in professional, academic, and interpersonal contexts. Psychological research highlights the significance of cognitive biases, such as the primacy and recency effects, which influence how people interpret and recall information.The Primacy Effect and Cognitive AnchoringThe primacy effect describes the tendency for initial information to impact judgment disproportionately. When individuals encounter...
Subliminal Perception01:15

Subliminal Perception

Subliminal perception refers to the processing of sensory information that occurs below the level of conscious awareness. Researchers study subliminal perception by presenting a stimulus, such as a word or image, very quickly, typically around 50 milliseconds. This rapid presentation is often followed by another stimulus, such as a pattern of dots or lines, which blocks further mental processing of the initial stimulus. As a result, if participants cannot identify the initial stimulus better...
Facial Feedback Hypothesis01:24

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Charles Darwin proposed that facial expressions are an evolutionary adaptation for communication. He argued that these expressions are not influenced by culture but are universal across species. For example, a snarling expression with exposed teeth signals a threat in many animals, including humans. Darwin also suggested that displaying an emotion can intensify the feeling. Smiling, for example, could enhance one's sense of happiness. This idea laid the foundation for understanding the role of...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

ASCT: a pipeline for standardized analysis of MEG/EEG directional connectivity. Practical guidelines for applications of source-based Directed Transfer Function.

Frontiers in neuroinformatics·2026
Same author

Fear Generalization in Adolescent Anxiety Disorders: A MEG Study.

Depression and anxiety·2026
Same author

Emotion regulation or dual task? Dissociation of neural and behavioral measures.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

No Evidence for Changes in Emotional Reactivity Following a 12-Week Exercise Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Psychophysiology·2026
Same author

ClearScope: A Fully Integrated Light-Sheet Theta Microscope for Sub-Micron-Resolution Imaging Without Lateral Size Constraints.

Journal of imaging·2026
Same author

When does food act as a social surrogate? The interplay of need to belong and social context.

Appetite·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
15:57

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion

Published on: May 4, 2011

Rapid picture processing: affective primes and targets.

Tobias Flaisch1, Markus Junghöfer, Margaret M Bradley

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. Tobias.Flaisch@uni-konstanz.de

Psychophysiology
|October 4, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Emotional pictures elicit stronger brain responses, but preceding images can reduce this effect. This suggests brain processing is influenced by the context of emotional visual stimuli.

More Related Videos

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
05:36

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention

Published on: November 16, 2017

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
15:57

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion

Published on: May 4, 2011

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
05:36

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention

Published on: November 16, 2017

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
13:00

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception
  • Psychophysiology

Background:

  • Emotional images typically elicit larger early electroencephalography (EEG) event-related potential (ERP) components over occipital regions compared to neutral images.
  • This enhanced negativity is thought to reflect the brain's heightened processing of emotionally salient stimuli.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how the emotional valence of a prime picture influences the processing of a subsequent target picture.
  • To examine the electrophysiological correlates of emotional picture processing under varying sequential contexts.

Main Methods:

  • Dense sensor electroencephalography (ERP) was recorded from participants viewing a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of pictures.
  • Pictures included pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant stimuli, presented sequentially for 335 ms each.
  • Analysis focused on ERP components associated with target picture processing, modulated by the preceding prime picture's valence.

Main Results:

  • Emotional target pictures elicited significantly larger posterior negativity compared to neutral target pictures, replicating prior findings.
  • The hedonic valence of the prime picture (pleasant or unpleasant) significantly reduced the posterior negativity for the subsequent target picture, regardless of the target's emotional valence.
  • This suggests a context-dependent modulation of emotional processing in the brain.

Conclusions:

  • The brain's response to emotional visual stimuli is not solely determined by the target image itself but is also influenced by the preceding visual context.
  • A model of competition among successive visual stimuli may explain the observed reduction in emotional processing when primes are highly valenced.
  • These findings contribute to understanding attentional and affective modulation in visual perception.