Emotion and Brain Oscillations: High Arousal is Associated with Decreases in Alpha- and Lower Beta-Band Power

Abstract

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.

Rhythmic Neural Patterns During Empathy to Vicarious Pain: Beyond the Affective-Cognitive Empathy Dichotomy

“…Considering the active inhibitory role of alpha enhancement as well as OFC regulatory role, we suggest that the late OFC alpha-beta power enhancement detected in the current empathy study reflects a top-down inhibitory control mechanism in perceiving painful stimuli to regulate emotion and social behavior. Our findings are partially in line with a recent article examining three different EEG studies on negative and positive high arousal emotions (first study: erotic vs neutral; second study: mutilation vs neutral; third study: erotic vs mutilation; Schubring and Schupp, 2021). Schubring and Schupp reported an early alpha/low-beta (10-16 Hz) suppression in response to observing mutilation pictures over the central sensors, showing activation at the sensory area as well as a late alpha/low-beta (10-20 Hz) enhancement over anterior and posterior EEG sensors in response to observing negative but not positive high arousal stimuli, representing functional inhibitions to negative stimuli.…”

“…Thus far, the studies that looked into neural rhythms underlying empathy mainly reported the involvement of the alpha rhythm ( Perry et al, 2010 ; Whitmarsh et al, 2011 ; Woodruff et al, 2011 ; Chen et al, 2012 ; Hoenen et al, 2015 ; Motoyama et al, 2017 ; Rieèanskı and Lamm, 2019 ). Alpha-band activity is involved in numerous emotional and cognitive processes ( Klimesch et al, 2007 ; Hanslmayr et al, 2012 ; Bauer et al, 2014 ; Frey et al, 2015 ; Sadaghiani and Kleinschmidt, 2016 ; Schubring and Schupp, 2021 ), and in particular, it has a unique dual functionality: a cortical inhibitory control role reflected by an increase in alpha band power (i.e., enhancement) as well as an active role “gating by inhibition” ( Jensen and Mazaheri, 2010 ). Accordingly, alpha power suppression is thought to reflect release from inhibition in the brain ( Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999 ; Mazaheri et al, 2009 ; Haegens et al, 2010 ; Jensen and Mazaheri, 2010 ).…”

“…Accordingly, alpha power suppression is thought to reflect release from inhibition in the brain ( Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999 ; Mazaheri et al, 2009 ; Haegens et al, 2010 ; Jensen and Mazaheri, 2010 ). In addition to these multiple studies on the involvement of alpha suppression vs enhancement in cognition, a recent series of studies point to its involvement in affective processing of vicarious pain ( Whitmarsh et al, 2011 ; Rieèanskı et al, 2015 ; Levy et al, 2018 ) and distress ( Levy et al, 2016 , 2019a,b , 2019c ; Pratt et al, 2016 ) as well as inhibitory control in response to negative emotional stimuli ( Schubring and Schupp, 2021 ). Furthermore, there are other aspects of alpha rhythmicity which deserve attention: timing (e.g., early vs late) and phase-locking (e.g., induced vs evoked activity), just like other studies on working memory ( Deiber et al, 2007 ) and emotion ( Schubring and Schupp, 2021 ).…”

“…In addition to these multiple studies on the involvement of alpha suppression vs enhancement in cognition, a recent series of studies point to its involvement in affective processing of vicarious pain ( Whitmarsh et al, 2011 ; Rieèanskı et al, 2015 ; Levy et al, 2018 ) and distress ( Levy et al, 2016 , 2019a,b , 2019c ; Pratt et al, 2016 ) as well as inhibitory control in response to negative emotional stimuli ( Schubring and Schupp, 2021 ). Furthermore, there are other aspects of alpha rhythmicity which deserve attention: timing (e.g., early vs late) and phase-locking (e.g., induced vs evoked activity), just like other studies on working memory ( Deiber et al, 2007 ) and emotion ( Schubring and Schupp, 2021 ). In particular, while few studies examined induced neural response during empathy ( Levy et al, 2016 , 2018 ), induced activity reflects integrative functions, and not only externally-evoked processes and is therefore crucial not to overlook ( Tallon-Baudry and Bertrand, 1999 ).…”

Processing of Affective Pictures: A Study Based on Functional Connectivity Network in the Cerebral Cortex

“…ey found that when the subjects faced lower quality synthetic text, the neuron activity in the alpha band of the left frontal lobe increased [31]. However, Schubring et al found that when subjects dealt with high arousal emotional stimuli, the energy in the alpha band decreased [32]. In short, energy changes in the alpha band are closely related to emotional stimulation processing.…”