The role of attention in the generation of anticipatory potentials to affective stimuli: an ERP and source analysis study

Anticipatory EEG signals are characterised by the occurrence of negative slow cortical potentials. This negativity is posed to be enhanced when expecting highly emotional stimuli; however, the specific role attention plays in its generation is unclear, as emotional content is more salient and arousing, and thus recruits higher attentional resources. Here, affective anticipation signals were recorded in 35 participants with EEG, and their brain sources elucidated using multiple sparse priors algorithm. Using a cued-paradigm, the category of a sound being negatively valenced or neutral could be predicted with a 68% accuracy. To shift attentional resources away from the emotional content, participants were instructed to listen and respond to a burst of white noise that occurred on 9% of trials. Results showed slower reaction times following the aversive cue, yet no difference in EEG amplitude between aversive and neutral anticipation. Response times positively correlated with EEG amplitude – participants with stronger negativity were faster to respond. EEG source reconstruction demonstrated no differences between conditions, and showed activation of areas within the salience network including insula, somatosensory cortex, and thalamus. The current results suggest that anticipatory EEG negativity is an index of attentional resource-allocation during the anticipation period and does not reflect the emotional content of upcoming stimuli.