An ERP investigation of age differences in the negativity bias for self-relevant and non-self-relevant stimuli.

ABSTRACT: As we age, we show increased attention and memory for positive versus negative information, and a key event-related potential (ERP) marker of emotion processing, the late positive potential (LPP), is sensitive to these changes. In young adults the emotion effect on the LPP is also quite sensitive to the self-relevance of stimuli. Here we investigated whether the shift toward positive stimuli with age would be magnified by self-relevance. Participants read 2-sentence scenarios that were either self-relevant or non-self-relevant with a neutral, positive, or negative critical word in the second sentence. The LPP was largest for self-relevant negative information in young adults, with no significant effects of emotion for non-self-relevant scenarios. In contrast, older adults showed a smaller

SUBMITTER: Fields EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8178198 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature