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Frontal brain asymmetry and affective flexibility in an emotional contagion paradigm
Author(s) -
Papousek Ilona,
Reiser Eva M.,
Weber Bernhard,
Freudenthaler H. Harald,
Schulter Günter
Publication year - 2012
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.1469-8986.2011.01324.x
Subject(s) - psychology , electroencephalography , flexibility (engineering) , affect (linguistics) , prefrontal cortex , stimulation , resting state fmri , brain asymmetry , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , audiology , developmental psychology , lateralization of brain function , cognition , communication , medicine , statistics , mathematics
This study was aimed at examining the relation of an individual's EEG asymmetry in the lateral frontal cortex, assessed in resting conditions, to affective flexibility. An auditory paradigm was used to induce negative (sad) and positive (cheerful) affective states, and state‐dependent shifts of dorsolateral EEG asymmetry in response to and after the emotional provocations were observed. A Left > Right activation pattern at rest was associated with a shift to the right during negative and a shift to the left during positive stimulation, and efficient recovery after negative stimulation. Right > Left participants appeared unresponsive to both sounds. Distinct and differentiated responses to provocation with negative and positive affect and efficient recovery suggest that Left > Right prefrontal activity at rest is related to a flexible pattern of affective responding, which has been linked to adaptive emotional processing in the relevant literature.