Effects of visual emotion on multiple sensory modalities

Abstract

We used the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) which is increasingly used in brain imaging studies to examine emotional processes. Their images also allow arousal to be systematically investigated. Eighty IAPS images of low, neutral and high arousal. Those images were randomly presented for 2.0 s on screen set at 200 cm in front of the subject. Ten healthy subjects participated. MEG recordings were made with a 306-channel whole-head MEG system in a magnetically shielded room. The amplitude of the N1 source in the occipital area was larger in the neutral arousal images than the low and high arousal images. This result suggests that the amplitude of N1 that originated from the visual region was modulated by arousal of the image.