Motivated Attention in Emotional Picture Processing is Reflected by Activity Modulation in Cortical Attention Networks

In the present study we presented subjects with high (pleasant and unpleasant) and low (neutral) arousing emotional pictures in a steady-state visual evoked field paradigm while recording the magnetoencephalogram. Applying a minimum norm estimation (MNE) technique we determined the origin and the strength of the evoked neuromagnetic field. In addition to magnetocortical data, we examined subjective ratings, heart rate change and viewing time to obtain a multi-variate database of emotional experience related to the activation of affective stimulus representation. As evidenced by the MNE, pictures rated as high ar…