Late positive potential (LPP) modulation during affective picture processing in preschoolers.

Research has demonstrated that late positive potential (LPP) is modulated by affective pictures in school-age children, adolescents and adults. However, little is known about such modulation in specific younger populations such as preschoolers. In this study, we examined whether LPP modulation during affective picture processing would also be observed in preschoolers as well as investigating the patterns of such modulation by using pictures which elicited emotional reactions of different valences. Twenty preschoolers (M age in months=61.00, SD=7.73) passively viewed pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures while their scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Results showed that in preschoolers pleasant and unpleasant pictures elicited significantly larger LPP amplitudes than neutral pictures, and this affective modulation of LPP amplitude emerged in the posterior region and gradually extended to the central and anterior regions.