Programm

The discovery of the late positive potential (LPP) in response to emotional pictures and reports of emotional arousal, indicating enhanced emotional engagement (Cuthbert et al., 2000), has significantly shaped electrophysiological research in affective science for the past two decades. In the present symposium we aim to synthesize the latest advances in LPP research and various fields of applications in associative learning, imagery, emotion regulation and perception. The first two talks will present novel LPP findings on how initially neutral information can acquire emotional significance through associative mechanisms. Anne-Kathrin Schacht (University of Göttingen) will illustrate how these processes unfold in the visual domain, using both social and non-social events in younger adults. Next, Christian Panitz (University of Bremen) will present data from an imagery-based conditioning paradigm, investigating whether stimuli paired with aversive imagery evoke increased LPP amplitudes in children. The third talk by Kornelia Gentsch (University of Mainz) will offer new insights into how spontaneous, socially triggered emotion regulation shapes early and late appraisal processes across different sensory modalities (visual, auditory, olfactory). Finally, Carlos Ventura-Bort (University of Potsdam) will provide new perspectives on correspondence between LPP and self-reported measures. Using representational similarity analysis in an affective picture-viewing task, this talk will explore the trial-by-trial relationship between LPP amplitudes and various affect-related models, such arousal and valence. Taken together, our symposium will highlight the versatility of the LPP as a valuable electrophysiological marker of emotional engagement in psychological research and broaden its interpretation and application.