Emotion processing: An electrophysiological examination of school-age children Pubblico

Abstract

Abstract
Emotion processing: An electrophysiological examination of school-age children
By Samantha A. Mandel

In adults, emotional stimuli elicit larger neural activity compared to neutral stimuli, as reflected
in event-related potential (ERP) paradigms. This larger response has been evidenced across
various studies, and has been coined the late-positive potential (LPP). Although the LPP has
been thoroughly demonstrated in adults, experiments concerning this emotional neural response
have not been fully investigated within chidhood development. Twenty-one school-age children
(ages 5 to 8 years old) viewed a presentation of positive, negative, and neutral images during
which ERPs were recorded. The participants subjectively rated a subset of the images in order to
ensure that children and adults interpreted the emotional content of the images similarly.
Behavioral and electrophysiological results indicated that school-age children demonstrate the
LPP observed in adults, albeit at a later time, in both the front and back of the scalp.
Furthermore, this LPP response is affected by the positive condition in the front of the scalp and
by the negative condition in the back of the scalp; and this topographical difference in emotion
processing has yet to be evidenced in the LPP literature. There was differential processing of
emotion across time windows, ERP electrodes, and hemisphere as well. Collectively, these
findings suggest that school-age chidren's neural responses to positive and negative stimuli are
larger than to neutral stimuli, which demonstrates that by school-age years there is a LPP
present, even though their brains are not yet fully developed during this age range. Lastly, the
findings indicate that there may be a relationship between the way children process emotional
stimuli and how that affects their behavior in diverse emotional contexts (e.g., avoiding
unpleasant situations).

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….……1


Method………………………………………………………………………...………11
Participants…………………………………………………………….…11
Materials……………………………………………………….…….……11
Measures…………………………………………………………….……12
Procedure……………………………………….………….………..….13
ERP Data Reduction………………….……………………………...16
ERP Data Analysis…………………….………………………….....16


Results…………………………………………………..……………………..……..17


Discussion………………………………………………..……….………………….24


References……………………………………………….…………….…….……..29


Appendix………………………………………………………………..…..….……33

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, General Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive
Parola chiave	ERP late positive potential children emotion emotion processing
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Bauer, Patricia, Emory University
Committee Members	Brown, Peter J, Emory University Hamann, Stephan, Emory University

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