The neural process of perception and evaluation for environmental hazards: evidence from event-related potentials

• Published in: Neuroreport Vol. 25; no. 8; pp. 607 - 611
• Main Authors: Ma, Qingguo, Fu, Huijian, Xu, Tao, Pei, Guanxiong, Chen, Xiaojian, Hu, Yue, Zhu, Chao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 28-05-2014; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Electroencephalography; Environment; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Photic Stimulation; Safety Management; User-Computer Interface; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual Perception - physiology; Young Adult; Evaluation; environmental hazard; Central nervous system; Information processing; Electrophysiology; Perception; Cognition; event-related potentials; Event evoked potential; hazard information processing; Encephalon
• ISSN: 0959-4965; 1473-558X
• DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000147

Perception and evaluation of environmental hazards are vital for human beings to avoid potential hazard. This study used event-related potentials to explore the neural temporal features in the human brain during the processing of environmental hazard presented by picture stimuli, and we found two stages involved in processing pictures with environmental hazardthe relatively early automatic hazard perception stage indicated by P200 and the later hazard evaluation stage indicated by late positive potential. It provided certain evidence for the hazard perception two-stage model. The results indicated consistency between neural processing toward word and picture stimuli in the hazard evaluation tasks.