Abstract
While numerous studies have investigated emotion through presentation of visual stimuli, no study has focused on the role of the visual system during decision-driven emotional expectancies. Early visual representations to an otherwise neutral cue may bias decision-making. To test this hypothesis, we measured EEG activity during an attention task in which individuals responded to neutral cues by endogenously generating happy or sad decisional expectancies. Results indicate that early (150–200ms) lateralized visuocortical activity predicted subsequent positive and negative decisional outcomes. These results provide evidence that decision-making, even for abstract emotional categories, is influenced by lateralized early visual responses to neutral stimuli.