Event-related brain potentials differentiate three types of emotional words categorized from linguistic perspective

The present study investigated the differences of processing three types of emotional words categorized into Affect, Judgment and Appreciation according to the linguistic Appraisal Theory. Behavioral and ERP responses were recorded as participants performed the category decision task, which required them to identify whether a word belonged to Affect, Judgment or Appreciation. The behavioral results showed significant main effects and interaction of category and valence. The category and valence effects in ERPs were evident within the time windows of N400 and late positive complex (LPC). To be specific, under negative condition, the affect words revealed a facilitated processing associated with the least negative N400 and an elaborate processing with the largest LPC amplitude, while the appreciation words elicited the most enhanced N400 and the smallest LPC amplitude. The ERP data indicate that emotional words of different categories may be processed differently when deep semantic processing was required.