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Electrophysiological evidence of personal experiences in the great Sichuan earthquake impacting on selective attention

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Abstract

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured when 24 Chinese subjects performed the earthquake color-matching Stroop task. All of them have experienced the great Sichuan earthquake (5.12), with 12 subjects in each of Chengdu city and Chongqing city (different earthquake experiences) groups. The behavioral data showed that the earthquake Stroop task yielded robust the earthquake interference effect as indexed by longer RT for earthquake-related (Related) words than earthquake-unrelated (Unrelated) words only in the Chengdu group. Scalp ERP analysis also revealed the neurophysiological substrate of the interference effect: a greater positivity (P350–450) in Related words as compared to Unrelated words was found between 350 and 450 ms post-stimulus over fronto-central scalp regions in the Chengdu group, while the interference effect was not found in the Chongqing group. The P350–450 might reflect an earthquake experience interference, but also attention enhancing, effect of earthquake-related words. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (Related-Unrelated) showed that a generator was localized in the parahippocampal gyrus, which was possibly associated with flashbulb memory (personal earthquake experience). The results indicated that different personal earthquake experiences might be critical in engaging the neural mechanisms that underlie the modulation of selective attention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Jiang Qiu, Hong Li & QingLin Zhang

  2. School of psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Jiang Qiu, Hong Li, QingLin Zhang, LiHui Huang, YaQiao Guo, Shen Tu, Ting Wang & DongTao Wei

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  1. Jiang Qiu
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  2. Hong Li
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Correspondence to QingLin Zhang.

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30800293), the Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science of Chinese Ministry of Education (Grant No. 08JZD0026), and the Southwest University Doctoral Fund.

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Qiu, J., Li, H., Zhang, Q. et al. Electrophysiological evidence of personal experiences in the great Sichuan earthquake impacting on selective attention. SCI CHINA SER C 52, 683–690 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-009-0076-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-009-0076-6

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