2 Previous fMRI-and ERP-studies revealed that performing a cognitive task may suppress the preferential processing of emotional stimuli. However, these studies utilized simple and artificial tasks (i.e., letter, shape, or orientation discrimination tasks), unfamiliar to the participants. The present event-related potential study examined the emotion-attention interaction in the context of a com...

Threatening stimuli seem to capture attention more swiftly than neutral stimuli. This bias has been observed under different experimental conditions and with types of It remains unclear whether this adaptive behaviour reflects the function automatic or controlled mechanisms. Additionally, spatiotemporal dynamics its neural correlates are largely unknown. The present study investigates these iss...

Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Title The endocannabinoid system and emotional processing: pathophysiology and therapeutic potential. (2012) 'The endocannabinoid system and emotional processing: pathophysiology and therapeutic potential'.

Emotional-intensity is a core characteristic of affective events that strongly determines how individuals choose to regulate their emotions. Our conceptual framework suggests that in high emotional-intensity situations, individuals prefer to disengage attention using distraction, which can more effectively block highly potent emotional information, as compared with engagement reappraisal, which...

Emotional signals are of pivotal relevance in social interactions. Neuroimaging and lesion studies have established an important role of the amygdala for the processing of these signals. While the human amygdala receives input from all sensory modalities, it is the visual modality that is most important for emotional aspects in social interactions. Consequently, amygdala involvement in visual e...

Empirical evidence suggests that words are powerful regulators of emotion processing. Although a number of studies have used words as contextual cues for emotion processing, the role of what is being labeled by the words (i.e., one's own emotion as compared to the emotion expressed by the sender) is poorly understood. The present study reports results from two experiments which used ERP methodo...

We examined whether and how image’s semantics and emotion content interact during visual processing. In each trial, we briefly presented two emotional or neutral images (a scene context and an object), manipulating the semantic consistency and the emotional consistency of the pair. Participants categorised one image semantically or emotionally. Semantic categorisation was overall better than em...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with risk for chronic pain, but the mechanisms contributing to the MDD and pain relationship are unclear. To examine whether disrupted emotional modulation of pain might contribute, this study assessed emotional processing and emotional modulation of pain in healthy controls and unmedicated persons with MDD (14 MDD, 14 controls). Emotionally charged...