54 �� 17 dB) This difference approached statistical significanc

54 �� .17 dB). This difference approached statistical significance (F (1,178) = 3.58, p = .06), suggesting that pictures presented in the first fairly block may have been more evocative than those presented in the second block. However, the interaction between block and picture valence was not significant (F (3,534) = 0.40, p = .75), indicating similar decreases in alpha ERD between the picture categories. Therefore, in the following analyses, alpha ERD was an average across the two blocks of the entire experiment. We found that alpha ERD magnitude varied as a function of the picture valence category (F (3,534) = 19.08, p < .0001; Figure 2). Subsequent pairwise comparisons confirmed our first hypothesis that pleasant, unpleasant, and cigarette-related pictures induced alpha ERD at a greater level than neutral stimuli (all ps < .

001). The contrasts of alpha ERD between pleasant and unpleasant and between pleasant and cigarette-related conditions were not statistically significant (p > .3), while cigarette-related stimuli induced alpha ERD at a higher level than unpleasant stimuli (p < .05). Figure 2. Emotional and cigarette-related stimuli induced greater alpha ERD than neutral stimuli. Values plotted depict the mean changes in alpha power between a prestimulus baseline and a window lasting 400�C800ms after stimulus onset, where larger decreases ... We also examined whether there was a relationship between the alpha ERD to cigarette-related stimuli and nicotine addiction measures.

We found that the FTND scores, cigarettes per day, and CO levels did not modulate smokers�� alpha ERD levels induced by cigarette-related stimuli as indicated by the null interactions between picture valence and FTND scores (F (3,531) = 1.61, p = .19), cigarettes per day (F (3,531) = 1.38, p = .25), or CO levels (F (3,525) = 0.76, p = .52). Alpha ERD and Emotional Arousal Our second hypothesis was that alpha ERD would be correlated with normative arousal ratings of the pictures. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a regression analysis with the mean level of alpha ERD to each picture subcategory (neutral people, neutral objects, pleasant objects, unpleasant objects, sadness, romance, erotica, and mutilations) as a response and the normative arousal level of these categories as a predictor. This analysis revealed a significant correlation between alpha ERD magnitude and normative arousal levels (Pearson��s r = ?.

71, p < .05). Low-arousal pictures (neutral people and objects) induced the lowest levels of alpha-ERD, followed by increasing levels of alpha-ERD for medium-arousal (pleasant and unpleasant objects, sadness, and romance) and high-arousal (erotica Carfilzomib and mutilations) pictures (Figure 3). Figure 3. Significant correlation between alpha ERD magnitude and the normative arousal levels of the stimulus subcategories. Mean normative arousal levels for each stimulus category are plotted on the x-axis.

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