The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the underlying neural
mechanisms of visual affective priming. Eighteen young native English-speakers (6 males,
12 females) participated in the study. Two sets of 720 prime–target pairs (240 affectively
congruent, 240 affectively incongruent, and 240 neutral) used either words or pictures as
primes and only words as targets. ERPs were recorded from 64 scalp electrodes while
participants pressed either “Happy” or “Sad” buttons to indicate target pleasantness. The …