Event-related potential study on emotional communication not through five conventional senses

Abstract:

Objective：To seek for the evidences of electrical activity of emotional communication in the brain of couples（named as sender and receiver） excluding five conventional senses（look，listen，touch，smell，taste）. Methods：We induced performances of event-related potential（ERP） of senders by applying ERP technique and using Chinese affective picture system（CAPS） and Chinese affective face picture system（CAFPS） as stimuli. Simultaneously，we observed the ERP performances of receivers who received the same visual stimulation as senders. Results：During CAPS test，there were significant differences in ERP performances of senders in－duced by neutral pictures and negative pictures（370-430 ms：F=5.478；500～550 ms：F=13.852，P<0.05）. Simultaneously，under differ－ent stimuli of sender，ERP performances of receivers showed significant differences in late potentials（370-430，500-550，600-800 ms：F=3.880，4.776，7.441，P<0.05）. In CAPFS test，there was no statistical difference in ERP performances of receivers stimulated by pic－tures of happy face，sad face and angry face while ERP performances of sender showed significant differences. Conclusions：Evidences of electrical activity of emotional communication in the brain of couples are existed excluding five conventional senses，which may oc－cur at the same time or occur in delay and its content is about self-experiences.