Romantic love affects emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli: An EEG/ERP study using a love induction task

The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) the neural correlates of a love induction task (LIT) including listening to love-related songs and thinking about the romantic relationship, and (b) the effects of romantic love on the emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli during a passive viewing task. The EEG was recorded in two groups of university students: people in love (Love Group, LG, N = 22, 19 F) and people not in love (Control Group, CG, N = 20, 15 F). The LIT induced higher pleasantness and arousal in the LG than in the CG, as well as higher alpha activity in occipital-right electrodes, suggesting active mental imagery and internal focused attention. During the picture viewing task, the LG displayed larger N1 amplitudes than the CG in response to unpleasant pictures, and lower amplitudes of the late positive potential to both pleasant and unpleasant pictures at frontal sites. Overall, these results suggest an early attentional modulation of the neural responses to unpleasant, mood-incongruent cues, followed by an implicit emotional down-regulation of arousing stimuli, which might have important implications for everyday attitudes and behaviors.