EEG Face Oddball Paradigm as the Test for Emotional Reaction

One method for assessing human emotional reactions is considered paradigms involving the presentation of affective images, including facial expressions, which are among the most familiar and noticeable stimuli in our visual environment. Electroencephalography event-related potentials (ERP) to various stimuli are used as sensitive tests for determining categorical perception of specific stimulus modalities. The oddball ERP paradigm, presenting angry and happy faces, could be a test for determining a person's emotional reaction. Our results showed that ERP data revealed major response peaks at 120, 212, and 420 ms (measured by global field power), presumably corresponding to P2, N170, and N400 ERP components. All the peaks exhibited differences in the amplitude of responses to the standard and deviant, suggesting variations in the processing of faces with happy and angry expressions. Cluster analysis showed that at the first peak, there was a cluster of 4 occipital electrodes. At the 2nd peak, there were 3 clusters of 2 electrodes (parietal, frontocentral, parietalocentral) and not a single cluster was found at the 3rd peak.