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Frontal brain asymmetry and emotional reactivity: A biological substrate of affective style
Author(s) -
WHEELER ROBERT E.,
DAVIDSON RICHARD J.,
TOMARKEN ANDREW J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb03207.x
Subject(s) - psychology , brain asymmetry , affect (linguistics) , frontal lobe , clips , reactivity (psychology) , developmental psychology , audiology , neuroscience , lateralization of brain function , communication , medicine , alternative medicine , surgery , pathology
Individuals differ dramatically in the quality and intensity of their response to affectively evocative stimuli. On the basis of prior theory and research, we hypothesized that these individual differences are related to variation in activation of the left and right frontal brain regions. We recorded baseline brain electrical activity from subjects on two occasions 3 weeks apart. Immediately following the second recording, subjects were exposed to brief positive and negative emotional film clips. For subjects whose frontal asymmetry was stable across the 3‐week period, greater left frontal activation was associated with reports of more intense positive affect in response to the positive films, whereas greater right frontal activation was associated with more intense reports of negative affect in response to the negative film clips. The methodological and theoretical implications of these data are discussed.