Positive Emotional Stimuli Research Articles

The Effect of Emotion Priming on Risk Attitudes among Southern Chinese College Students

Abstract: The correlation between emotions and risk attitudes has been thoroughly substantiated in various disciplines such as behavioral economics, finance, and psychology. Evidence has revealed that emotions, influenced by a range of emotional factors, have the potential to significantly affect risk attitudes. Building upon prior research, this study investigates the impact of certain emotional triggers on risk attitudes in a sample of university students in southern China. A total of 55 valid subjects, including 42 females (76.4%), were enrolled in the experiment. Their risk attitudes were assessed using multiple scales, and they were randomly assigned into three groups to receive positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli before making risky decisions separately. The findings demonstrated that individuals who were emotionally primed with a positive emotion video were more inclined to undertake hazardous decisions compared to those exposed to negative emotional priming. This outcome aligns with earlier studies indicating that positive emotions are linked with a heightened fondness for risky behavior. In conclusion, this study corroborates the relevance of this theory to a group of undergraduates in the south of China.

Creativity and Perception: Unveiling the Role of Cross‐Modal Audiovisual Integration

ABSTRACTMultisensory environments rich in modal integration provide cues from various sensory modalities including visually, auditorily, and tactilely. Such modal integration plays a crucial role in cognitive processing, specifically in fostering creativity. Numerous studies highlight that emotional coherence through cross‐modal affective integration enhances cognitive competencies such as memory, attention, and the capacity to generate original, fluent ideas. Nonetheless, current research lacks comparative studies pinpointing how different sensory modalities impact individual creativity. We addressed this research void by employing a cross‐model matching paradigm, anchored on the concept of emotional coherence. Our investigation evaluated the impact of varying emotional stimuli (both positive and negative) on creativity performance, considering single sensory modalities (visual and auditory), as well as their cross. Our study participants were 119 Chinese university students who completed a creative task under varying emotional stimulation modality conditions. We observed that the bimodal audiovisual integration of positive emotional stimuli most effectively enhanced creativity as compared to solely auditory modality. The visual modality seemed the least effective, underscoring the impact of multichannel integration. Interestingly, the bimodal audiovisual integration of negative emotional stimuli significantly boosted originality, albeit with little difference in fluency relative to the auditory modality. Based on the theoretical significance of multimodal emotional integration, our interpretation of these findings suggests that audiovisual cross‐modal emotional integration, with its rich emotional information, serves as a catalyst for enhancing originality. However, we observed that the facilitative effect on overall creativity and fluency is primarily observed in the context of positive emotions. It is important to note that we carefully controlled for participants' creative personality factors and conducted three types of emotional evaluations across modalities to ensure the validity of our results. Furthermore, the impact of cross‐modal audiovisual emotional integration on creativity, both in terms of originality and fluency, is influenced by the distinct emotional perceptual characteristics inherent to each modality.

混合情绪刺激对联结记忆的影响

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of mixed emotional stimuli on associative memory. Emotional word pairs were chosen as the materials for the experiment, and the classical associative reconsideration paradigm was used to explore the effects of mixed emotional stimuli on associative memory under the condition of controlled arousal. Subjects were asked to learn different types of emotional word pairs in the learning phase, and associative recognition judgments were made on the word pairs in the recognition phase. It was found that the associative recognition scores (Pr) for mixed-emotion stimuli, positive-emotion stimuli, and negative-emotion stimuli were all significantly smaller than those for the neutral condition. The difference in associative recognition scores between mixed-emotion stimuli and positive-emotion stimuli was not significant. The association recognition scores for both mixed-emotion stimuli and positive-emotion stimuli were significantly higher than the association recognition scores for negative-emotion stimuli. The results suggest that mixed-emotion stimuli, positive-emotion stimuli, and negative-emotion stimuli impair associative memory compared to the neutral condition. Negative emotional stimuli impaired associative memory to the greatest extent, followed by mixed emotional stimuli and positive emotional stimuli.

Effect of contextual prediction on emotional word processing: an evidence from ERPNR-D-24-00189.

This study examined the effect of context on the prediction of emotional words with varying valences. It investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the processing differences of emotion words with different valences in both predictable and unpredictable contexts. Additionally, it aimed to address the conflicting results regarding the processing time in predictive contexts reported in previous studies. Participants were instructed to carefully read the text that included the specified emotion words. Event-related potentials elicited by emotional words were measured. To ensure that the participants can read the text carefully, 33% of the texts are followed by comprehension problems. After reading the text, the comprehension questions were answered based on the text content. The study revealed that the N400 amplitude elicited by an unpredictable context was greater than that elicited by a predictable context. Additionally, the N400 amplitude triggered by positive emotion words was larger than that triggered by negative emotion words. However, there was no significant difference in late positive component amplitude observed between contextual prediction and emotional word valence. The present study suggests that predictive processing takes place at an intermediate stage of speech processing, approximately 400 ms after stimulus onset. Furthermore, the presence of a predictive context enhances the processing of emotional information. Notably, brain activity is more pronounced during the processing of positive emotional stimuli compared to negative emotional stimuli. Additionally, the facilitative effect of a predictable context diminishes in the advanced phase of Chinese speech comprehension.

Longitudinal associations between neighborhood safety and adolescent adjustment: The moderating role of affective neural sensitivity

Research on social determinants of health has highlighted the influence of neighborhood characteristics (e.g., neighborhood safety) on adolescents’ health. However, it is less clear how changes in neighborhood environments play a role in adolescent development, and who are more sensitive to such changes. Utilizing the first three waves of data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) project (N = 7932, M (SD) age = 9.93 (.63) years at T1; 51% boys), the present study found that increases in neighborhood safety were associated with decreased adolescent externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, but not sleep disturbance over time, controlling for baseline neighborhood safety. Further, adolescents’ insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) reactivity to positive emotional stimuli moderated the association between changes in neighborhood safety and adolescent adjustment. Among youth who showed higher, but not lower, insula and ACC reactivity to positive emotion, increases in neighborhood safety were linked with better adjustment. The current study contributes to the differential susceptibility literature by identifying affective neural sensitivity as a marker of youth’s susceptibility to changes in neighborhood environment. The findings highlight the importance of neighborhood safety for youth during the transition to adolescence, particularly for those with heightened affective neural sensitivity.

Synergy of Positive Emotional Stimuli and Education Technologies in JobLab English Speaking Development for Graduates

This study delves into the effectiveness of integrating the PERMA model, emphasising the synergy of positive emotional stimuli and education technologies satisfying digital natives daily within JobLab's framework for FLA (Foreign Language Acquisition) development among graduate students. The research methodology combined qualitative and quantitative data. With a focus on nurturing holistic well-being and language proficiency, this research involves forty-six students divided into an experimental group (N=23) with an innovative approach and a control group (N=23) following traditional teaching methods. Pre/post-observations and student self-assessment questionnaires FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) were utilised to assess the impact of the intervention. Statistical analysis using established software revealed notable improvements in English-speaking proficiency among the experimental group, emphasising the significance of the PERMA model's integration in JobLab. Results indicated improved professional English language learning performance for the experimental group with the positive emotional stimuli and technology integration approach, highlighting the potential for cultivating proficient communicators among graduates.

Suicide-related cognitions and emotional bias performance in a community sample

BackgroundSuicide is theorized to be connected to social interactions and feelings of belongingness. Those with suicide-related cognitions (SRCs) demonstrate attentional bias toward negative or suicide-related words, which can lead to increased feelings of rejection or alienation. As social interactions employ both verbal and nonverbal cues, there exists a gap in understanding how perception of emotional expressions can contribute to the development or exacerbation of suicidal ideation. MethodsThe current sample (N = 114, 60.5 % female, 74.6 % white) completed the Suicide Cognitions Scale-Revised (SCS-R) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess SRCs and depression severity. The Emotional Bias Task (EBT) was used to assess emotional response latency. ResultsMultiple regression analyses on EBT results showed that endorsement of SRCs and depression severity were not associated with any particular emotional response bias. However, presence of SRCs showed an association with longer latencies to identify ambiguous emotional expressions, even when controlling for depressive symptoms and age LimitationsMeasures were self-completed online. Relative homogeneity of the sample and cross-sectional design limits interpretation of the results. ConclusionsThose with more severe SRCs take longer to recognize positive, nonverbal cues. Irregular processing of positive emotional stimuli combined with bias toward negative verbal cues could worsen feelings of rejection or alienation in social interactions, therefore increasing risk of developing SI. This suggests that interventions focusing on allocation of attentional resources to process positive social cues may be beneficial for those with SRCs to reduce severity and risk of suicide.

Objective measurement of apathy and its differentiation from depression in dementia based on physiological reactivity to stimuli presented in virtual reality environment

AbstractBackgroundWe aimed to develop a tool for objective measurement of apathy and its differentiation from depression in the context of cognitive impairment.MethodWe exposed older adults with and without cognitive impairment (CI and CN, respectively) to emotional (i.e., positive), aversive and neutral, and to cognitive (congruent; incongruent) stimuli in a virtual reality environment and measured their physiological reactivity as reflected by autonomic nervous system (ANS) functions [heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), respiration and galvanic skin response (GSR)], and gaze [time to gaze fixation (TTGF) and total fixation duration (TFD)]. Apathy and depression were measured via the Lille Apathy Rating Scale (LARS)‐ and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), respectively.ResultParticipants' characteristics are presented in Tables 1‐2. Compared to CN, CI participants had lower TFD (ANOAVE: F = 7.471, P = 0.006) and GSR reactivity (F = 6.334, P = 0.014) in response to all stimuli. Among participants with CI, those with apathy (LARS score ≥‐7) (n = 21) had shorter TFD compared to those without apathy (F = 19.259, P = 0.001), and those with depression (GDS score ≥5) (n = 46) had longer TFD compared to those without depression ((F = 33.118, P = 0.001) to all stimuli. For all participants, presence of apathy was associated with lower TFD (F = 13.807, P = 0.001) higher TTGF (F = 10.819, P = 0.001), lower HRV reactivity (F = 4.089, P = 0.043) and respiration depth reactivity (F = 8.026, P = 0.005) in response to all stimuli. In contrast, depression was associated with higher TFD (F = 8.448, P = 0.004), lower TTGF (F = 5.290, P = 0.022) and higher HRV reactivity (F = 5.171, P = 0.023) to all stimuli. Increasing LARS scores were negatively associated with respiration rate (R = ‐0.223, P = 0.025) and TFD (R = ‐0.253, P = 0.021) in response to positive emotional stimuli, and with TFD in response to congruent (R = ‐0.265, P = 0.016) and incongruent (R = ‐0.247, P = 0.024) cognitive stimuli. GDS scores were positively associated with HR (R = 0.219, P = 0.049; R = 0.217, P = 0.05 respectively) and respiration depth (R = 0.216, P = 0.048; R = 0.252, P = 0.021 respectively) reactivity to positive and aversive emotional stimuli.ConclusionANS and gaze reactivity to emotional and cognitive stimuli presented in a VR environment is sensitive to cognitive status and to apathy, even in subtle forms. Moreover, this tool can potentially differentiate apathy from depression in the context of cognitive impairment.

Spatio-temporal scale information fusion of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy signal for depression detection

Depression, a prevalent and debilitating mental health disorder, necessitates early detection to enable effective intervention. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has proven to be a promising technique for studying depressive symptoms due to its affordability, portability, high spatial resolution and non-invasiveness. However, existing fNIRS-based depression detection approaches often overlook signal intrinsic properties and intrinsic correlations among different feature types, as well as local spatial geometric structures of data. To overcome these limitations, we suggest a spatio-temporal scale information fusion framework that involves supervised local low-rank correlation (IFLRC) to detect depression. IFLRC incorporates a low-rank constraint, a sparse ℓ2,1-norm term, multiple Laplacian regularizations, and a sparse penalty projection matrix to capture global spatial functional information, handle errors to enhance robustness to noise, preserve local spatial geometric structures, exploit correlations among multiple information sets, and enhance discriminative ability. An iterative algorithm, based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), has been developed to solve the suggested objective function. The experimental findings validate the efficacy of IFLRC, yielding favorable detection rates of 95.8%, 87.3%, and 97.2% in response to positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli, respectively. These findings exceed existing methods, demonstrating the potential of fNIRS and the effectiveness of IFLRC for detecting depression. IFLRC presents notable advancements in feature extraction and fusion techniques for depression detection. Its capacity to capture spatio-temporal scale information, leverage intrinsic correlations, and preserve local geometric structures translates into improved performance. This framework holds promise for early detection and intervention in depressive disorders, offering valuable insights for clinical applications.

Parental involvement affects parent-adolescents brain-to-brain synchrony when experiencing different emotions together: An EEG-based hyperscanning study

Parental involvement (PI) is a broad and multifaceted construct, which refers to the parental demonstration of interest in their child, caring, and warmth (Davis et al., 2021). Parental involvement affects parent-adolescent’s relationship and communication. However, there was little research to examine the underlying neural mechanism. The present study aimed to explore how parental involvement is associated with the brain-to-brain synchronous activation between parent-adolescent dyads when sharing emotional experience together by using the electroencephalograph (EEG) hyperscanning. EEG was recorded simultaneously in a sample of 26 parent-adolescent dyads (Mparents’age=43.312, SD=5.468; Madolescents’ age=12.077, SD=1.412) when completing the picture processing task. Phase locking values (PLVs) in beta band and gamma band were used to compare the differences in the parent-adolescent dyads’ induced brain-to-brain synchrony between the high parental involvement group (HPI) and the low parental involvement group (LPI). Results showed that greater beta brain-to-brain synchrony was observed in the HPIs than in the LPIs when experiencing positive emotions together in the central region. However, there was no significant difference between the HPIs and the LPIs in the negative and neutral condition. Moreover, greater gamma brain-to-brain synchrony was observed when viewing negative emotional stimuli together than viewing positive emotional stimuli together in the LPIs in the central region. However, there was no significant difference between different emotional conditions in the HPIs. Findings of the present study provide neuroscientific evidence that parental involvement may strengthen parent-adolescent’s emotional interaction and communication.

THE EFFECTS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON EMOTIONAL INFORMATION PROCESSING SPEED

In this present study, we aimed to explore whether personality traits within the Big Five model and trait emotional intelligence may have the ability to predict the response speed to emotional stimuli in athletes. We also investigated whether athletes' response speed may differ due to the stimuli's emotional content. The sample included 62 male student-athletes who participated in the study. Participants first completed measures of personality and emotional intelligence. Afterward, they completed an experimental task to measure response speed to emotional stimuli. In this experiment, participants responded to neutral, positive, or negative emotional pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Results demonstrated that extraversion and neuroticism were not correlated to response speed to emotional stimuli. However, consistent with our predictions, openness to experience was associated (p< .01) with the emotional information processing speed of positively valenced stimuli. Besides, the appraisal of emotions dimension of the trait emotional intelligence was also significantly and negatively correlated to response speed to positively valenced pictures. Although the present study provided only partial support for our predictions regarding the link between emotional information processing speed, personality, and emotional intelligence, our results have some preliminary implications for both researchers and practitioners. Accordingly, our study showed that openness to experience and appraisal of emotions might be a valuable construct for a better understanding individuals' responses to positive emotional stimuli and previously known personality traits.

Network Analysis of Depression Using Magnetoencephalogram Based on Polynomial Kernel Granger Causality.

Depression is a psychiatric disorder characterized by anxiety, pessimism, and suicidal tendencies, which has serious impact on human's life. In this paper, we use Granger causality index based on polynomial kernel as network node connectivity coefficient to construct brain networks from the magnetoencephalogram (MEG) of 5 depressed patients and 11 healthy individuals under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli, respectively. We found that depressed patients had more information exchange between the frontal and occipital regions compared to healthy individuals and less causal connections in the parietal and central regions. We further analyzed the topological properties of the network revealed and found that depressed patients had higher average degrees under negative stimuli (p = 0.008) and lower average clustering coefficients than healthy individuals (p = 0.034). When comparing the average degree and average clustering coefficient of the same sample under different emotional stimuli, we found that depressed patients had a higher average degree and average clustering coefficient under negative stimuli than neutral and positive stimuli. We also found that the characteristic path lengths of patients under negative and neutral stimuli significantly deviated from small-world network. Our results suggest that the analysis of polynomial kernel Granger causality brain networks can effectively characterize the pathology of depression.

Anxiety is not the right choice! Individual differences in trait anxiety modulate biases in pseudoneglect.

Pseudoneglect, the tendency to display a leftward perceptual bias, is consistently observed in line bisection tasks. Some studies have shown that pseudoneglect is sensitive to emotions. This emotion-related modulation is likely related to valence-dependent hemispheric lateralization, although the results do not converge. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies could be individual differences in emotional tone. Considering that negative and positive emotions produce different basic activations of the two hemispheres, emotional characteristics of the subjects, such as trait anxiety, could in fact modulate the pseudoneglect phenomenon. To verify this, high- and low-anxiety participants were asked to centrally bisect horizontal lines delimited by neutral or emotional (happy and sad) faces. In line with previous studies, results here showed a decrease in the leftward bisection error in the presence of happy faces, indicating a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing positive emotional stimuli. In addition, trait anxiety influenced the magnitude of the visual bias. High-anxiety subjects, compared to low-anxiety subjects, showed a general bias in visual attention toward the left space as a function of emotional valence. Results are discussed within the framework of valence-dependent hemispheric specialization and the relative degree of activation. In sum, our data highlight the relevance of considering emotional individual differences in studying the pseudoneglect phenomenon.

Feature extraction based on sparse graphs embedding for automatic depression detection

Background and Significance:Automatic detection of depression is crucial in today’s fast-paced, depression-prone society. However, the current diagnosis still relies on manual assessment by psychologists using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), resulting in delays in early detection and treatment. This paper proposes an automatic feature extraction method called Sparse Graphs Embedding (SGE) for depression detection. The further goal is to integrate SGE into the healthcare system, enabling automatic depression diagnosis during physical examinations for early detection and early treatment. Method and Novelty:The method addresses several key challenges, including the maintenance of local information in the fNIRS signal space, the removal of outliers, and the rejection of redundant information between features. Specifically, it constructs two weighted graphs embedded in the between-class scatter and within-class scatter, preserving the neighborhood relationships within the data. To mitigate sensitivity to outliers, the ℓ2,1-norm is embedded in both the between-class and within-class scatter as a fundamental measure. Additionally, sparse orthogonality projections are employed to extract effective features for depression detection and eliminate redundant information. Results:Experimental results demonstrate promising detection rates of 86.1%, 82.8%, and 92.2% using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli, respectively. These rates surpass those achieved by other state-of-the-art methods. The promising results showcase the potential of fNIRS, and the weighted graph embedding approach sheds new light on depression detection.

Psychophysiological and computational correlates of enhanced Pavlovian threat conditioning to positive and negative emotional stimuli

Psychophysiological and computational correlates of enhanced Pavlovian threat conditioning to positive and negative emotional stimuli

Age-related reduction in trait anxiety: Behavioral and neural evidence of automaticity in negative facial emotion processing

Trait anxiety diminishes with age, which may result from age-related decline in registering salient emotional stimuli and/or enhancement in emotion regulation. We tested the hypotheses in 88 adults 21 to 85 years of age and studied with fMRI of the Hariri task. Age-related decline in stimulus registration would manifest in delayed reaction time (RT) and diminished saliency circuit activity in response to emotional vs. neutral stimuli. Enhanced control of negative emotions would manifest in diminished limbic/emotional circuit and higher prefrontal cortical (PFC) responses to negative emotion. The results showed that anxiety was negatively correlated with age. Age was associated with faster RT and diminished activation of the medial PFC, in the area of the dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC/rACC) – a hub of the saliency circuit – during matching of negative but not positive vs. neutral emotional faces. A slope test confirmed the differences in the regressions. Further, age was not associated with activation of the PFC in whole-brain regression or in region-of-interest analysis of the dorsolateral PFC, an area identified from meta-analyses of the emotion regulation literature. Together, the findings fail to support either hypothesis; rather, the findings suggest age-related automaticity in processing negative emotions as a potential mechanism of diminished anxiety. Automaticity results in faster RT and diminished anterior cingulate activity in response to negative but not positive emotional stimuli. In support, analyses of psychophysiological interaction demonstrated higher dACC/rACC connectivity with the default mode network, which has been implicated in automaticity in information processing. As age increased, individuals demonstrated faster RT with higher connectivity during matching of negative vs. neutral images. Automaticity in negative emotion processing needs to be investigated as a mechanism of age-related reduction in anxiety.

THE EFFECTS OF NEUROTICISM ON APPROACH-AVOIDANCE-RELATED MOTOR BEHAVIOR

In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether positive emotional stimuli may affect high and low neuroticism individuals’ maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) level of the biceps brachii muscle, which is considered a motor representation of approach behavior. The sample consisted of 36 right-handed individuals (12 females) ranging in age from 18 to 27 (M= 23.516 [2.120]). Participants completed items from the Big Five Factor Personality Inventory concerning Neuroticism. After completing the psychometric test, we exposed participants to the high valance low arousal pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) via Biotrace+ software during the execution of arm flexions. Participants made 2 MVC attempts for each experimental condition lasting 6 seconds and rested 3 minutes between MVC attempts to eliminate the effect of fatigue. Results of Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the percent change of MVC was positively associated with neuroticism (r= .368, p< .05). The results also showed that the percent change of MVC of the high neuroticism group was significantly greater than the percent change of the low neuroticism group [t(36)= -2.449, p= .020]. Results provided some support for our hypothesis. Hence the data demonstrated that positive emotional stimuli decreased the MVC of the biceps brachii muscle in individuals with low neuroticism. On the contrary, MVC levels of high neuroticism individuals remained almost stable in response to positive emotional stimuli.

Service Decisions Based on Social, Psychological, and Trust Factors Using Positive Emotional Stimulus

This study's goal was to identify the direct influence of social, psychological, and trust factors along with positive emotions on individuals' decisions to select physiotherapy services. At the Pain Relief Clinic Surabaya, subjects for physiotherapy were chosen. The decision to choose physiotherapy was a linked variable in this study; the independent variables were social, psychological, and trust aspects. Quantitative research employing survey techniques is the method used. Testing data tools, traditional acceptability tests, multiple linear regression tests, hypothesis testing, and deterministic analysis were all used in the data analysis. The results of the processed study show that psychological factors and trust have scientifically proved effects on decisions about physiotherapy services. Positive emotions have been shown to have a substantial impact on decisions for physiotherapy services based on social considerations and trust.

The influence of bilingual experience on executive function under emotional interference: Evidence from the N1 component.

The influence of bilingual education and experience on an individual's information-processing ability has recently been a hot issue in international studies. Previous studies have found that bilingual experience affects executive function, but the results remain controversial. Executive function refers to the conscious control of purposeful behavior. It is responsible for processing high-level action controls, including such sub-functions as inhibitory control, cognitive switching, and working memory updating. Emotion, as an essential factor in daily life, also has a complex interaction with executive function. This paper explores whether the bilingual cognitive advantage effect can continue in the more complex conditions of emotional interference. To investigate the specific electrophysiological characteristics of the participants at different stages of cognitive processing, we used a combination of the behavioral and ERP experiments in which the positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli were selected as emotional interference conditions and the emotional Simon paradigm, the cognitive switching of emotion paradigm, and the emotional N-back paradigm was adopted. The results show that the main effect of the N1 component amplitude is significant. Specifically, the amplitude of the N1 component in the proficient bilinguals is significantly smaller than that of the non-proficient bilinguals, while the main effects of other component groups are not significant, indicating that under the condition of emotional interference, the influence of bilingual experience on executive function only exists in the early attention stage and that the bilingual experience can improve the individual's attentional control and speed up attention processing in the early attention stage.

Depressed MEG causality analysis based on polynomial kernel Granger causality

In this study, we employ the Granger causality of a polynomial kernel to identify the coupling causality of depressed magnetoencephalography (MEG). We collect MEG under positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli and focus on the β-band activities. According to test results, depressed people display stronger left–right symmetrical interconnection in their prefrontal and occipital lobes under nonpositive stimuli(namely neutral and negative stimuli), indicating that they are more sensitive to nonpositive stimuli. The intensity of the right occipital information flow is higher in depressed people. We also see the Granger causality index increased in the occipital–frontal areas of depressed patients under negative stimuli. In general, detecting the polynomial kernel Granger causality of the MEG can effectively characterize the strength of the interconnected brain regions in depressed patients, which can be used as a clinical diagnosis aid.