Influence of lag length on repetition priming in emotional stimuli: ERP evidence

摘要

Background Previous studies have demonstrated both behavioral and neural evidence for the potential mediations of lag length and pre‐existing memory representation on repetition priming. However, such mediations on emotional stimuli have not been described. Methods The current experiment intended to disentangle lag length from pre‐existing memory representation. A lexical decision task was performed, in which different emotional characters (either normal or transposed) were re‐presented either immediately or delayed. Results In immediate repetition, one early and two late (ie, N400 and late positive complex) repetition‐related event‐related potential (ERP) effects were elicited, but these were not sensitive to pre‐existing memory representation. The delayed repetition case merely observed the N400. Conclusion These results suggest that the repetition‐related priming effect is neutrally sensitive to lag length. Emotional information potentially exerts early and later influences in the processing underlying stimuli memory.