Event-Related Potentials, Emotion, and Emotion Regulation: An Integrative Review

Progress in the study of emotion and emotion regulation has increasingly been informed by neuroscientific methods. This article focuses on two components of the event-related potential (ERP)—the P300 and the late positive potential (LPP)—and how they can be used to understand the interaction between the more automatic and controlled processing of emotional stimuli. Research is reviewed exploring: the dynamics of emotional response as indexed at early and late latencies; neurobiological correlates of emotional response; individual and developmental differences; ways in which the LPP can be utilized as a measure of emotion regulation. Future directions for the application of ERP/electroencephalogram (EEG) in achieving a more complete understanding of emotional processing and its regulation are presented.