Attentional load affects automatic emotional processing: evidence from event-related potentials

One open question on the relation between attention and emotion concerns the automatic processing of emotional visual stimuli outside the focus of attention. This study examined to what extent the emotional processing at unattended locations is modulated by the processing load at attended locations. Event-related potentials were measured to task-irrelevant unpleasant and neutral pictures briefly presented at peripheral locations while participants performed a visual central task varying in load (low and high load). Unpleasant pictures elicited larger amplitudes of N1-P2 at parietoccipital and occipital sites than that of neutral pictures. This effect was only significant in the low-load condition. Data suggest that brain responses to affective value of task-irrelevant peripheral pictures are modulated by attentional load at fixation.