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. 2012;7(10):e45945.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045945. Epub 2012 Oct 15.

An ERP study on decisions between attractive females and money

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Free PMC article

An ERP study on decisions between attractive females and money

Jianmin Zeng et al. PLoS One. 2012.
Free PMC article

Abstract

To investigate the neural processes of decision-makings between attractive females and money, we recorded 18 male participants' brain event-related potentials (ERPs) when they performed a novel task of deciding between viewing an attractive female's fuzzy picture in clear and gaining a certain amount of money. Two types of attractive females were included: sexy females and beautiful females. Several new electrophysiological discoveries were obtained as following. First, the beautiful females vs. money task (task B) elicited a larger positive ERP deflection (P2) than the sexy females vs. money task (task S) between 290 and 340 ms, and this probably related to the perception matching process between a visual input and an internal representation or expectation. Second, task S evoked greater negative ERP waves (N2) than task B during the time window of 340-390 ms, and this might relate to response conflict and cognitive monitoring for impulsive tendency. Third, the ERP positivity in task S was larger than task B in the time interval of 550-1000 ms, reflecting that sexy female images may have higher decision value for males than beautiful female images. Fourth, compared with choosing to gain money, choosing to view an attractive female evoked a larger late positive component (LPC) during the same time window, possibly because attractive females are more direct and evolutionarily earlier rewards for males than money amounts.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Sequence of stimuli in a typical trial in the second phase of the formal experiment.
Times under boxes represent stimulus duration. Indicative instead of original images of attractive females were used here for a demonstration purpose. (A) Task S (decision-making between viewing a sexy female in clear and gaining money); (B) Task B (decision-making between viewing a beautiful female in clear and gaining money).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Grand average ERPs in the decision-making phase.
Grand average ERPs of the four conditions at Fz, Cz, CPz and Pz electrode points when subjects made decisions.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Topographic maps of voltage amplitude difference of two kinds of decisions and tasks.
(A) choosing attractive females minus choosing money in task S and B in three time windows of 290–340 ms, 340–390 ms and 550–1000 ms, respectively. (B) decision-making in task S minus that in task B in three time windows of 290–340 ms, 340–390 ms and 550–1000 ms, respectively.

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Grant support

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation (30970892), Key Discipline Fund of National 211 Project, Major Program for Key Research Institutes of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China (2009JJD720023), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU1009095), Doctoral Foundation of Southwest University (SWUB2007069), and Post-doctoral Foundation of Southwest University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.