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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation
Published on: August 26, 2011
The neural correlates of implicit self-relevant processing in low self-esteem: an ERP study
Juan Yang1, Lili Guan, Katarina Dedovic
1Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. valleyqq@swu.edu.cn
Brain Research
|July 7, 2012
Summary
Implicit self-processing involves the P2 component, not P300. Self-relevant words showed prolonged P2 latency, indicating less efficient processing during an implicit attention task.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
- Electrophysiology
Background:
- Neuroimaging reveals overlapping brain activity for implicit and explicit self-processing.
- Electrophysiology suggests P300 indexes attention to explicit self-relevant cues.
- The temporal dynamics of implicit self-relevant processing remain under-investigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal course of implicit self-processing.
- To compare the processing of self-relevant versus non-self-relevant words.
- To determine if implicit self-processing elicits P2 or P300 event-related potential (ERP) components.
Main Methods:
- Event-related potentials (ERP) technology was used.
- Sixteen participants with low self-esteem performed an implicit attention task.
- Participants judged the color of self-relevant and non-self-relevant words.
Main Results:
- A prolonged P2 component latency was observed for self-relevant words compared to non-self-relevant words.
- The P2 component, associated with perceptual analysis and attention, was implicated in implicit self-processing.
- Task demands (color judgment) appeared to interfere with automatic processing of self-relevant information.
Conclusions:
- Implicit self-processing, unlike explicit, may involve the P2 component.
- The findings suggest explicit and implicit self-processing do not elicit the same ERP components.
- Interference from task demands can impact the efficiency of implicit self-relevant information processing.
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