Affective motivational direction drives asymmetric frontal hemisphere activation

Abstract

Decades of research have shown that the left- and right-frontal cortical regions are asymmetrically involved in affective processing. Specifically, this past work has demonstrated that greater left-frontal activation is related to positive-approach, and greater right-frontal activation is related to negative-withdrawal. However, much of this past work confounded motivation and affective valence. The current experiment sought to illuminate whether frontal asymmetry is related to motivation or affective valence by examining frontal-lateralized late positive potentials (f-LPPs) and frontal cortical alpha power activation to approach-positive, approach-negative, and withdrawal-negative affects in the same participants. Results revealed that f-LPPs to approach-positive and approach-negative pictures were larger in left- (vs. right-) frontal regions, whereas f-LPPs to withdrawal-negative pictures did not differ between frontal regions. In addition, midline LPPs to approach-positive and approach-negative pictures related to greater left-frontal cortical activation. Together, these results suggest that greater relative left-frontal activation is associated with positive and negative approach-motivated states in the same participants. More broadly, these results are consistent with conceptual models that asymmetric hemisphere activation is related to motivational direction, rather than affective valence.

The influence of frontal alpha‐asymmetry on the processing of approach‐ and withdrawal‐related stimuli—A multichannel psychophysiology study

“…This finding is in line with the capability model (see Coan et al, ). It extends previous research on LPP modulation (Gable & Harmon‐Jones, ; Gable & Poole, ; Poole & Gable, ) and shows that subjective ratings of both valence and arousal can also be influenced by state asymmetrical frontal brain activation. This association between emotion‐specific enhanced negative evaluations with larger state right frontal asymmetry is in line with the specific predictions of the approach withdrawal model (i.e., larger withdrawal motivation toward negative stimuli).…”

“…Consistent with previous studies (Gable & Harmon‐Jones, ; Harmon‐Jones, , Harmon‐Jones et al, ), state frontal asymmetry within the 6 s of picture viewing did not differ between picture types (for all comparisons p > .80). However, based on previous findings (e.g., Poole & Gable, ), we examined the hypothesis that individuals' differences in state frontal asymmetry were related to emotional responses for pictures similar in emotional valence. Results revealed that larger right frontal activation while viewing negative pictures was related to more negative subjective valence, r = .393, p = .024, R 2 = .154, and higher arousal ratings, r = −.480, p = .005, R 2 = .230, toward these pictures.…”

“…Allen, Coan, & Nazarian, ). In brief, data were segmented in 2‐s intervals for resting frontal asymmetry and in 1‐s intervals for asymmetry data during picture viewing (Gable & Poole, ; Harmon‐Jones et al, ; Poole & Gable, ; both 50% overlap), and fast Fourier transform was applied using an end‐tapered Hamming window. For resting asymmetry, segments were then averaged across eyes closed and eyes open conditions.…”

“…For those dependent variables where significant interaction with frontal asymmetry were found within the mixed‐model analyses of variance (ANOVAs), we then calculated correlations between emotion discrimination scores and frontal asymmetry (according to Jackson et al, ). Finally, to assess the relationship between emotional responding and state frontal asymmetry during picture viewing, correlations were conducted between emotional responding (i.e., ERPs, startle, SCR, ratings) toward the respective picture category (i.e., positive, neutral, negative) and state asymmetry assessed during the same picture category (see Gable & Poole, ; Harmon‐Jones et al, ; Poole & Gable, ). For correlations effect size R 2 was calculated, and for all statistical tests an alpha level of 5% was used.…”

“…In addition, right frontal asymmetry is associated with diminished emotion regulation abilities (Goodman, Rietschel, Lo, Costanzo, & Hatfield, ; Jackson et al, ), as well as attentional biases toward withdrawal‐related stimuli (Grimshaw, Foster, & Corballis, ; Miskovic & Schmidt, ; Pérez‐Edgar, Kujawa, Nelson, Cole, & Zapp, ). Finally, a series of studies on anger (i.e., an approach‐oriented emotion) have shown that enhanced left frontal brain asymmetry during the perception of anger‐evoking pictures is related to enhanced motivated attention (e.g., Gable & Poole, ; Poole & Gable, ; overview in Harmon‐Jones et al, ). This gives evidence for an association of frontal asymmetry with motivational tendency elicited by the stimulus, rather than with its emotional valence (Harmon‐Jones & Allen, ).…”