Abstract
The perceptual processing of emotional stimuli is subject to the regulation of brain function. This study investigated whether frontal electroencephalography (EEG) alpha asymmetry at resting conditions predicted the evaluation of emotional picture stimuli by event-related potentials (ERPs). In this study, participants first completed a 2-min resting task, and then passively viewed emotional pictures. The results showed that left active individuals had smaller frontal EEG alpha asymmetry scores to negative pictures than to positive and neutral pictures, whereas right active individuals had similar frontal EEG alpha asymmetry scores to negative, positive, and neutral pictures. Furthermore, the study showed a larger P300 to negative pictures than to positive and neutral pictures for left active individuals; however, there were no significant ERP differences to negative, positive, and neutral pictures for right active individuals. These findings suggest that frontal EEG alpha asymmetry at resting conditions can reflect interindividual differences in emotional perception tendencies to emotional picture stimuli.
Highlights
The question what factors account for individual differences in the evaluation of emotional stimuli continues to be a central issue in the field of affective neuroscience
A significant valence × group interaction was obtained, F(2, 68) = 3.54, p = 0.04, η2p = 0.09; simple effect analysis suggested that for left active group, negative pictures induced smaller laterality coefficient (LC) than positive (p = 0.02) and neutral (p = 0.02) pictures, whereas there was no significant difference between neutral pictures and positive pictures; for the right active group, there were not significant differences among negative, positive, and neutral pictures
Participants were subdivided into groups based on the median of frontal EEG alpha asymmetry scores at F3/F4 electrodes during the 2-min resting task
Summary
The question what factors account for individual differences in the evaluation of emotional stimuli continues to be a central issue in the field of affective neuroscience. Research suggested that emotional processing was regulated by a functional lateralization of frontal cortex [1,2,3,4,5]. A reliable correlate of frontal activity is frontal electroencephalography (EEG) alpha asymmetry that is reflected in the alpha frequency band (typically 8–13 Hz) measured with electroencephalography (EEG). Recent evidences suggested that there was an inverse relation between activity within the alpha range and cortical processing. When underlying cortical systems was in active processing, the alpha tended to decrease [6,7,8]. This study examined how frontal EEG alpha asymmetry was related to individual differences in the evaluation of emotional stimuli
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