Article

Attention can be oriented to different spatial locations yielding faster
processing of attended compared to unattended stimuli. Similarly attention can be
oriented to a semantic category such as "animals" or "tools". Words from the
attended category will also be recognized faster than words from an unattended
category. Here, we asked whether it is possible to orient attention to an
emotional category, for example, "negative emotional stimuli". Furthermore, we
investigated which mechanisms facilitate processing of attended stimuli. In an
attentional orienting paradigm in which cues are informative with regard to the
spatial location, semantic category, or emotional category of subsequent target
words, we found attention effects in all three cue conditions. Words at attended
locations or of the attended semantic or emotional category were responded to
faster than unattended categories. While spatial attention acted upon early
visual processing and amplified occipital N1-P2 potentials, semantic cues
modulated the N400 amplitude indexing semantic processing. Emotional cues also
yielded an N400 modulation; however, in addition, a left anterior P2 effect was
observed. The data clearly show that attention can be oriented to emotional
categories. Emotional orienting yields facilitated processing of an attended
emotional category through the modulation of early and late word processing
stages.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS