Proneness to hypomania/mania symptoms or depression symptoms and asymmetrical frontal cortical responses to an anger-evoking event.

Abstract

The behavioral approach system (BAS) reflects the propensity to respond to signals of reward, including stimuli associated with safety and goal-oriented attack (e.g., anger). Hypomania/mania has been posited to involve increased BAS activity. In contrast, depression has been posited to involve decreased BAS activity. Building on past research, which suggests that increased left frontal cortical activity is a neurophysiological index of BAS activity, the present research tested the hypotheses that proneness toward hypomania/mania symptoms would be related to increased relative left frontal activity and that proneness toward depression symptoms would be related to decreased relative left frontal activity in response to an anger-evoking event. Results from 67 individuals who had completed a measure of proneness toward these affective symptoms and were exposed to an anger-evoking event supported the hypotheses.Prominent motivation theories share the assumption that two systems underlie much behavior. One system manages appetitive, incentive motivation and approach behavior. It has been called a behavioral activation system (Fowles, 1980(Fowles, , 1988, behavioral approach system (BAS; Gray, 1982Gray, , 1987Gray, , 1990Gray, , 1994aGray, , 1994b, and behavioral facilitation system (Depue & Collins, 1999;Depue & Iacono, 1989;Depue, Krauss, & Spoont, 1987). The other system, the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), inhibits ongoing behavior (Gray, 1982(Gray, , 1987(Gray, , 1990(Gray, , 1994b).Gray 's (1982, 1987, 1994a, 1994b) theory has served as the basis for most of the other theories. Hence, we focus on it. Gray has posited that these fundamental motivation systems are present in the mammalian central nervous system and that each responds to separate classes of reinforcing events with particular types of behavior. Moreover, each is mediated by a separate set of interacting brain structures that process particular types of information. The BIS responds to conditioned stimuli associated with punishment, conditioned stimuli associated with the omission or termination of reward (frustrative nonreward), and novel stimuli. It causes the interruption of ongoing behavior, increases arousal, which prepares the organism for the next behavior, and increases attention toward stimuli, which would increase information gain. The neural structures posited to be involved in the BIS are the septohippocampal system (composed of the septal area, entorhinal cortex, dentate gyrus, hippocampus, and subicular area), the prefrontal cortex, and the monoaminergic pathways that ascend from the mesencephalon to innervate the septohippocampal system.The BAS is posited to respond to stimuli associated with reward and relieving nonpunishment (safety). It also responds to stimuli associated with skilled escape and predatory aggression. The neural structures involved in the BAS are the basal ganglia (the dorsal and ventral striatum, and dorsal and ventral pallidum), the dopaminergic fibers that ascend from the mesencephalon (substantia nigra and nu...

Not everyone's heart contracts to reward: Insensitivity to varying levels of reward in dysphoria

“…Most of these brain imaging studies concerned patients with major depression but also recovered depressed (McCabe, Cowen, & Harmer, 2009) and healthy populations at risk (Gotlib et al, 2010). In a similar vein, there is evidence for electrocortical hypoactivation of left prefrontal areas in depressed and dysphoric individuals-in the resting state but also during reward anticipation (e.g., Davidson, Pizzagalli, Nitschke, & Putnam, 2002;Gotlib, Ranganath, & Rosenfeld, 1998;Harmon-Jones et al, 2002;Shankman, Klein, Tenke, & Bruder, 2007;Thibodeau, Jorgensen, & Kim, 2006;Tomarken & Keener, 1998).…”

Asymmetrical frontal cortical activity associated with differential risk for mood and anxiety disorder symptoms: An RDoC perspective

“…As summarized, individuals prone to hypomania (Harmon-Jones, et al, 2002) and individuals with a bipolar spectrum diagnosis (Harmon-Jones et al, 2008) display abnormally elevated relative left frontal EEG activity during approach-relevant laboratory tasks, and, among individuals with a bipolar spectrum disorder, elevated relative left frontal EEG activity predicts conversion to bipolar I disorder . In studies that have employed fMRI reward paradigms, the most reliable finding is that bipolar individuals display an abnormal increase in left lateral OFC activation during reward processing.…”

“…Furthermore, growing evidence indicates that relative left frontal EEG activity may be associated with differential risk for unipolar depression versus bipolar disorder. Specifically, unipolar depression is associated with reduced approach motivation and decreased relative left frontal activity and bipolar disorder is associated with elevated approach motivation and increased relative left frontal activity (Harmon-Jones et al, 2002Nusslock et al, , 2012bThibodeau et al, 2006). By contrast, anxiety appears to be characterized by either elevated or reduced relative left frontal activity, depending on the specific symptom cluster (anxious-apprehension versus anxious-arousal) (Heller et al, 1997;Mathersul et al, 2008;Nitschke et al, 2009;Guyer et al, 2006).…”

“…In line with the BAS hypersensitivity model and the approach-withdrawal model of frontal EEG asymmetry, evidence suggests that bipolar spectrum disorders are characterized by elevated relative left frontal cortical activity. In an earlier study, Harmon-Jones et al (2002) examined the relationship between proneness to symptoms of hypomania/mania and relative left frontal cortical activity in response to an angerevoking laboratory event. Anger-evoking events are considered approach-oriented or BAS activating given the appetitive motivational state they typically induce as a person attempts to remedy the angerprovoking situation (Carver and Harmon-Jones, 2009).…”

Repressors vs. low- and high-anxious coping styles: EEG differences during a modified version of the emotional Stroop task

“…Harmon-Jones et al (in press) argue that motivation provides a better explanation for hemispheric asymmetries in cortical activity than affective valence. Individuals experiencing mania have been shown to have greater left frontal activation (Kano et al, 1992), and individuals with a proneness to hypomania/mania symptoms demonstrated leftfrontal activation when stimuli evoked anger (Harmon-Jones et al, 2002). Harmon-Jones and Gable (2009) have also found that in the experimental environment, increased motivational factor such as the amount of time since a previous meal significantly impacted cortical asymmetry when viewing positive food stimuli, but not other positive images.…”