In the present study the patterns of interdependency between different brain regions were investigated as volunteers looked at emotional and non-emotional film stimuli. The main goal was to evaluate the emotion-related differences and to check their consistency during the elaboration of the same type of stimuli in repeated presentations. A measure called synchronization index (SI) was used to detect interdependencies in EEG signals. The hypotheses were that emotional-information processing could involve variation in synchronized activity and that two valence-specific emotions -happiness and sadness -differ from each other. The SI obtained was compared among the various experimental conditions and significant changes were found. The results demonstrated an overall increase of SI during emotional stimulation and, in particular, during sadness, which yielded a pattern involving a large exchange of information among frontal channels. On the other hand, happiness was associated with a wider synchronization among frontal and occipital sites, although happiness itself was less synchronized. We conclude that the SI can be successfully applied for studying the dynamic cooperation between cortical areas during emotion responses.
This study investigated whether adult attachment styles influence subjective and neurophysiological aspects of emotion. Self-reported emotional arousal and pleasantness and EEG frontal asymmetry were analysed while subjects watched emotional video-clips inducing happiness, fear and sadness with attachmentrelated content. Results showed a clear difference between attachment patterns on emotional arousal, resting frontal asymmetry and fluctuating asymmetry changes. Avoidant individuals responded to positive stimuli with less arousing subjective experience and right frontal asymmetry. In turn, preoccupied individuals showed higher arousal feelings and wider frontal left activation. Opposite patterns were observed in response to fear. These findings support the involvement of attachment in modelling individual emotional response and underlying brain functional processes, accounting partly for individual variability in human emotion.
- Emotional processes are complex events, with a mental component, referring to the qualia of subjective experience, and a somatic component, referring to the level of psychophysiological activation. The research on everyday emotions, that has the relevant advantage to investigate the emotional adaptation process to individual's environment in an ecological perspective, avoiding the laboratory artefacts, focused exclusively on the subjective aspects, providing a partial view of emotion. The aim of the present study was to explore how basic emotions are experienced in the everyday life, investigating, in an integrated approach, both the subjective and somatic changes that accompany emotion. The subjective components were measured through a diary, while the psychophysiological components were measured through a Holter that continuously monitored the cardiac activity during 24 hours. Then, two indexes were studied: the heart rate and the heart rate variability that provides information on the sympatheticparasympathetic balance. Results showed that the subjective experience of everyday basic emotions significantly differed in their intensity and frequency. From the somatic point of view, some significant differences emerged among basic emotions, suggesting that also in the everyday life and ecological context, specific emotions represent distinct and discrete physiological events. The present study obtained results that encourage advancing in this field of research through a new integrated approach, providing useful indications to face off the methodological caveats.
- Aim of the study was to investigate the emotional experience in everyday life, considering both the subjective aspect and the physiological components. The subjective experience has been collected by a diary, while the physiological component were measured by a holter. The analysis of the subjective experiences showed that the families of emotion most frequently experienced were: joy, anger, fear and sadness and there was a balance between positive and negative emotions. Furthermore there was a significative relation between specific emotions and specific antecedents, with a prevalence of social antecedent. A multivariate analysis of the subjective and physiological data showed specific patterns for the different emotions and a coherence between subjective response and the physiological component of the sympathetic system.Parole chiave: emotions, everyday life, psychophysiology, heart rateParole chiave: emozioni, vita quotidiana, psicofisiologia, battito cardiaco
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