Event-related oscillations (ERO) and event-related potentials (ERP) in emotional face recognition

The study aims to explore the significance of event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related brain oscillations (EROs) (delta, theta, and alpha power) in response to emotional face during 180-250 poststimulus time interval. Twenty-one adults looked at emotional (sad, happy, fearful) or neutral faces. The results demonstrated that the emotional face elicited a negative peak at approximately 230 ms (N230). Moreover EEG measures showed that motivational significance of face (stimulus type) can modulate the amplitude of EEG, especially for theta and delta. Regression analysis showed that theta oscillations mainly effect as oscillation activity at the N2 latency. Thus, this frequency band variation could represent a complex set of cognitive processes, whereby selective attention becomes focused on an emotional relevant stimulus.