Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2026
Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
Published on: November 16, 2017
Motivated and controlled attention to emotion: time-course of the late positive potential
Greg Hajcak1, Jonathan P Dunning, Dan Foti
1Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA. greg.hajcak@stonybrook.edu
Objective:
The present study examined the time-course of automatic and controlled modulation of the late positive potential (LPP) during emotional picture viewing.
Methods:
Participants (N=32) viewed neutral and unpleasant stimuli for 6000 ms; at 3000 ms, one of two tones signaled participants to attend either to a more or less arousing portion of the picture. The time-course of the LPP was examined both during the passive viewing and directed attention portions of the trial using the method proposed by Guthrie and Buchwald [Guthrie D, Buchwald JS. Significance testing of difference potentials. Psychophysiology 1991;28(2):240-4].
Results:
During passive viewing, the LPP became reliably larger following the presentation of unpleasant pictures from 160 ms onward; the magnitude of the LPP became reliably smaller beginning 620 ms after participants were instructed to attend to the less arousing aspects of unpleasant pictures - and this difference was maintained throughout the duration of the trial.
Conclusions:
The LPP reflects relatively automatic attention to emotional visual stimuli, but is also sensitive to manipulations of directed attention toward arousing versus neutral aspects of such stimuli.
Significance:
These results shed further light on the time-course of emotional and cognitive modulation of the LPP, and suggest that the LPP reflects the relatively rapid and dynamic allocation of increased attention to emotional stimuli.
