The Affective Priming Effect on the N400 and LPP Components: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Science
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Affective priming significantly impacts emotional and cognitive processing.
• Electrophysiological evidence on affective priming effects, particularly event-related potentials (ERPs), is inconsistent.
• Systematic reviews synthesizing ERP data in affective priming are scarce.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively synthesize electrophysiological evidence on the affective priming effect.
• To evaluate the impact of affective priming on N400 and late positive potential (LPP) components.
• To explore moderators influencing these ERP effects.

Main Methods:

• A three-level random-effects meta-analytic approach was employed.
• Data were systematically gathered from 47 studies across four major databases.
• Meta-analysis focused on N400 (N=1118) and LPP (N=804) components.

Main Results:

• Affectively incongruent prime-target trials elicited significantly larger N400 amplitudes (d=0.63) compared to congruent trials.
• Similarly, incongruent trials showed larger LPP amplitudes (d=0.24) than congruent trials.
• Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and task demands moderated the N400 effect, while SOA moderated the LPP effect.

Conclusions:

• The findings provide robust electrophysiological support for the affective priming effect on N400 and LPP.
• Variations in SOA and task demands contribute to inconsistencies in prior research.
• This synthesis offers a clearer understanding of the neural underpinnings of affective priming.