The presented probability modulates emotional evaluation of neutral stimuli: insights from ERPs in Go/Nogo task

The aim of the present study is to investigate the electrophysiological correlates with the subsequent emotional consequence of neutral stimuli by varying the relative probability of Go and Nogo trails. At Go25 condition (25% probability of Go stimuli), Go stimuli produced enhancement value effect and the amplitude of P3 component was larger than other Go conditions. In contrast, at Nogo 50 condition (50% probability of Nogo stimuli), Nogo stimuli produced devaluation effect and elicited smaller N2 and larger P3 than other conditions. These data provided evidence for the hypothesis that response and inhibition triggered by neutral stimuli impacted their subsequent emotional evaluation, that is, behavioral response associated with neutral stimuli enhanced their cheerfulness evaluation, whereas response inhibition produced devaluation effects.