Sensitivity of the late positive potentials evoked by emotional pictures to neuroticism during the menstrual cycle

Abstract

The present event-related potentials (ERPs) study set out to investigate the effect of neuroticism on emotion evaluation during the menstrual cycle, with high and low neuroticism females viewing and evaluating valence and arousal of emotional pictures in the menstruation, late follicular and luteal phases. Behavioral results revealed no group or phase effect. ERPs data showed modulations of the menstrual cycle and neuroticism on the late positive potential (LPP), with the larger LPP (300-1000 ms post-stimulus) during the late follicular phase than that during the luteal phase and larger LPP (1000-3000 ms post-stimulus) in the high neuroticism group than that in the low neuroticism group. Furthermore, significant positive correlations between the LPP amplitudes and valence and arousal evaluations were observed mainly in the high neuroticism group. The present study provides electrophysiological evidences that the LPP evoked by emotional pictures are modulated both by the menstrual cycle and neuroticism.

Keywords: Emotion; Event-related potentials; Menstrual cycle; Neuroticism.