Fernández Hernández, A. 1 , Martín-Loeches, M. 1, 2 , Casado Martínez, P. 1, 2 , Jiménez-Ortega, L. 1, 2 & Fondevila, S. 1
1 Center for Human Evolution and Behavior,UCM-ISCIII, Madrid, Spain
2 Psychobiology Department, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
In the present study we investigate the influence of the emotional valence of words in the syntactic and semantic processing of a sentence by means of event-related brain potentials (ERP). Whereas the possibility is open that emotional content may affect semantic processes due to their heuristic and general computation nature, syntactic processes would be unaffected, as they are often considered algorithmic and encapsulated. The ERP were time-locked to correct or incorrect (50%) adjectives (target word) in sentences with the structure Det-N-Adj-V while subjects performed a correctness judgement. The adjective could also be positive, negative, or neutral, but there was no mention about the emotional content of the words. Results showed a strong effect of emotional content in the words only in the syntactic condition. Words with negative valence elicited larger amplitudes in both early (Left Anterior Negativity) and late (P600) components that emerged to syntactic violations. Semantic processes (N400), in contrast, appeared unaffected. Our results suggest that syntactic processing may share resources with other processes, i.e., that it is not as encapsulated as reported before. The relevance of emotional information in language processing is also supported, adding to recent, yet scarce evidences in this line.