Mood Induction Differently Affects Early Neural Correlates of Evaluative Word Processing in L1 and L2

We investigate how mood inductions impact the neural processing of emotional adjectives in one’s first language (L1) and a formally acquired second (L2). Twenty-three student participants took part an EEG experiment with two separate sessions. Happy or sad were followed by series individually presented positive, negative, neutral L1 (German) L2 (English) evaluative decisions had to be performed. Visual event-related potentials elicited during word analyzed N1 (125–200 ms), Early Posterior Negativities (EPN, 200–300 ms 300–400 N400 (350–450 Late Positive Potential (LPP, 500–700 ms). Mood induction differentially impacted already on N1, stronger left lateralization following happy than L1, but not L2. Moreover, regardless language, early valence modulation was found induction. Over occipital areas, larger amplitudes mood-congruent positive words, whereas over temporal areas mood-incongruent negative words higher amplitudes. In EPN-windows, effects largely persisted, albeit no difference between amplitude for L1. On LPP, ones. Results reveal remarkably valence-general effect cortical processing, line previous reports as marker contextual integration. Interestingly, this differed perceptual ERP amplification higher-order stages.