Frontal EEG Asymmetry of Mood: A Mini-Review

Abstract

The present mini-review was aimed at exploring the frontal EEG asymmetry of mood. With respect to emotion, interpreted as a discrete affective process, mood is more controllable, more nebulous, and more related to mind/cognition; in addition, causes are less well-defined than those eliciting emotion. Therefore, firstly, the rational for the distinction between emotion and mood was provided. Then, the main frontal EEG asymmetry models were presented, such as the motivational approach/withdrawal, valence/arousal, capability, and inhibition asymmetric models. Afterward, the frontal EEG asymmetry of mood was investigated following three research lines, that is considering studies involving different mood induction procedures, dispositional mood (positive and negative affect), and mood alterations in both healthy and clinical populations. In general, results were found to be contradictory, no model is unequivocally supported regardless the research line considered. Different methodological issues were raised, such as: the composition of samples used across studies, in particular, gender and age were found to be critical variables that should be better addressed in future studies; the importance of third variables that might mediate the relationship between frontal EEG asymmetries and mood, for example bodily states and hormonal responses; the role of cognition, namely the interplay between mood and executive functions. In light of these issues, future research directions were proposed. Amongst others, the need to explore the neural connectivity that underpins EEG asymmetries, and the need to include both positive and negative mood conditions in the experimental designs have been highlighted.

Microstates-based resting frontal alpha asymmetry approach for understanding affect and approach/withdrawal behavior

“…The current study is in line with the observation of Davidson and colleagues 35 and other earlier studies 4,36,63 , where no correlation was observed for affect and BIS/BAS measures with standard hemispheric asymmetry. However, these previous studies never explored the neurovascular underpinnings and associated hemodynamic asymmetry of these underpinnings.…”

“…This linkage was initially observed in many studies where left hemispheric lesion affected the perception of positive emotions whilst damage to the right hemisphere impaired the perception of negative emotions [1][2][3] . Subsequently, there was a surge in elucidating the role of frontal hemispheric asymmetry based on the alpha signature of electroencephalography (EEG) in manifesting the individual differences in affect and approach/withdrawal measures [4][5][6] . Davidson et al [7][8][9] , in their studies, suggested the lateralization of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) with respect to positive/motivational valence.…”

Music and wine tasting: an experimental neuromarketing study

“…Electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to measure brainwave activity, which has been extensively used in research and clinical practice to evaluate an individual's real-time emotional reactions towards specific stimuli (Palmiero and Piccardi, 2017;Wu and Sun, 2018), particularly that music perception and emotional processing are interweaved, which may lead to EEG power change (Lin et al, 2010). Furthermore, EEG is considered the optimal modality for recording human brainwave activity (Lokannavar et al, 2015).…”

Localization of the spectral features of the encephalograms in psychic disorders

“…Вместе с тем наблюдается усиление высокочастотного бета-ритма в задних сенсомоторных областях неокортекса. Что касается альфа-активности, наблюдается её фронтальная асимметрия [20,25] и гипоактивация левой фронтальной доли, которую при стрессе связывают с повышением риска развития расстройств психики [24]. Авторы работы [19] также предполагают, что при стрессе повышается риск формирования таких психических расстройств, как депрессия, тревожные состояния и др.…”