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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on April 7, 2009
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2009 4(3):286-293; doi:10.1093/scan/nsp010
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Effects of mood on the speed of conscious perception: behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

Christof Kuhbandner1,*, Simon Hanslmayr2,*, Markus A. Maier3, Reinhard Pekrun1, Bernhard Spitzer2, Bernhard Pastötter2 and Karl-Heinz Bäuml2

1Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Germany, 2Department of Experimental Psychology, Regensburg University, Germany, and 3Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA

When a visual stimulus is quickly followed in time by a second visual stimulus, we are normally unable to perceive it consciously. This study examined how affective states influence this temporal limit of conscious perception. Using a masked visual perception task, we found that the temporal threshold for access to consciousness is decreased in negative mood and increased in positive mood. To identify the brain mechanisms associated with this effect, we analysed brain oscillations. The mood-induced differences in perception performance were associated with differences in ongoing alpha power (around 10 Hz) before stimulus presentation. Additionally, after stimulus presentation, the better performance during negative mood was associated with enhanced global coordination of neuronal activity of theta oscillations (around 5 Hz). Thus, the effect of mood on the speed of conscious perception seems to depend on changes in oscillatory brain activity, rendering the cognitive system more or less sensitive to incoming stimuli.

Keywords: emotion; consciousness; brain oscillations; affective states; visual masking

Correspondence should be addressed to Christof Kuhbandner, Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany. E-mail: christof.kuhbandner{at}psy.lmu.de

Received June 17, 2008. Accepted February 17, 2009.


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