Temporally differentiated modulation of emotional face processing by attentional resource availability: an event-related potential study
Abstract
The interplay between top-down attentional control and bottom-up emotional capture remains debated, particularly in the late positive potential (LPP) time window. In the present study, we used mass univariate analysis to examine whether task difficulty itself modulates late-stage emotional processing in an implicit task. In a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, perceptual load was manipulated at T1, and at T2, fearful, happy, neutral, or face-absent stimuli were presented in a face-detection task. Emotional differentiation emerged during 148–372 ms and was not influenced by perceptual load, suggesting that emotional features were extracted relatively automatically. During the early LPP (400–600 ms), emotional differentiation was detected under low but not high load, suggesting that inconsistencies in emotion-related LPP effects reported in previous implicit-task studies may stem from differences in task difficulty. During the late LPP (600–800 ms), however, fearful expressions remained distinguishable from neutral expressions even under high load, indicating that resource limitations did not eliminate late emotional differentiation. Together, these findings provide compelling evidence that the availability of attentional resources differentially shapes the processing of emotional information in implicit tasks.
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BibTeX
@article{yang2026temporally,
title = {{Temporally differentiated modulation of emotional face processing by attentional resource availability: an event-related potential study}},
author = {Lan Yang and Junyu Liang and Yongjian Li and Shuaixia Li and Yuchen Li and Xing Fang and Jun Chen and Wenbo Luo},
journal = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/scan/nsag085},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsag085},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Temporally differentiated modulation of emotional face processing by attentional resource availability: an event-related potential study
AU - Lan Yang
AU - Junyu Liang
AU - Yongjian Li
AU - Shuaixia Li
AU - Yuchen Li
AU - Xing Fang
AU - Jun Chen
AU - Wenbo Luo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
DO - 10.1093/scan/nsag085
UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsag085
AB - The interplay between top-down attentional control and bottom-up emotional capture remains debated, particularly in the late positive potential (LPP) time window. In the present study, we used mass univariate analysis to examine whether task difficulty itself modulates late-stage emotional processing in an implicit task. In a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, perceptual load was manipulated at T1, and at T2, fearful, happy, neutral, or face-absent stimuli were presented in a face-detection task. Emotional differentiation emerged during 148–372 ms and was not influenced by perceptual load, suggesting that emotional features were extracted relatively automatically. During the early LPP (400–600 ms), emotional differentiation was detected under low but not high load, suggesting that inconsistencies in emotion-related LPP effects reported in previous implicit-task studies may stem from differences in task difficulty. During the late LPP (600–800 ms), however, fearful expressions remained distinguishable from neutral expressions even under high load, indicating that resource limitations did not eliminate late emotional differentiation. Together, these findings provide compelling evidence that the availability of attentional resources differentially shapes the processing of emotional information in implicit tasks.
SN - 1749-5016
SN - 1749-5024
ER -