Journal
CEREBRAL CORTEX
Volume 31, Issue 3, Pages 1597-1608Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa312
Keywords
attention; arousal; EEG; emotion; ERD
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy [EXC2117 - 422037984]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) [FOR 2374]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that high-arousal pictures are associated with a decrease in alpha/beta power, particularly peaking in occipitoparietal sensors; while late alpha/beta power increase to mutilation pictures may reflect top-down inhibitory control processes. These findings suggest that brain oscillations in the alpha/beta-band may serve as a useful measure of emotional stimulus processing.
The study of brain oscillations associated with emotional picture processing has revealed conflicting findings. Although many studies observed a decrease in power in the alpha- and lower beta band, some studies observed an increase. Accordingly, the main aim of the present research series was to further elucidate whether emotional stimulus processing is related to an increase or decrease in alpha/beta power. In Study 1, participants (N= 16) viewed briefly presented (150 ms) high-arousing erotic and low-arousing people pictures. Picture presentation included a passive viewing condition and an active picture categorization task. Study 2 (N= 16) replicated Study 1 with negative valence stimuli (mutilations). In Study 3 (N = 18), stimulus materials of Study 1 and 2 were used. The main finding is that high-arousing pictures (erotica and mutilations) are associated with a decrease of power in the alpha/beta band across studies and task conditions. The effect peaked in occipitoparietal sensors between 400 and 800 ms after stimulus onset. Furthermore, a late (>1000 ms) alpha/beta power increase to mutilation pictures was observed, possibly reflecting top-down inhibitory control processes. Overall, these findings suggest that brain oscillations in the alpha/beta-band may serve as a useful measure of emotional stimulus processing.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available