Emotion Regulation of Neuroticism: Emotional Information Processing Related to Psychosomatic State Evaluated by Electroencephalography and Exact Low-Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography

Abstract

Emotion regulation is the process that adjusts the type or amount of emotion when we experience an emotional situation. The aim of this study was to reveal quantitative changes in brain activity during emotional information processing related to psychosomatic states and to determine electrophysiological features of neuroticism. Twenty-two healthy subjects (mean age 25 years, 14 males and 8 females) were registered. Electroencephalography (EEG) was measured during an emotional audiovisual memory task under three conditions (neutral, pleasant and unpleasant sessions). We divided the subjects into two groups using the Cornell Medical Index (CMI): (CMI-I: control group, n = 10: CMI-II, III or IV: neuroticism group, n = 12). We analyzed the digital EEG data using exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) current source density (CSD) and functional connectivity analysis in several frequency bands (δ, θ, α, β, γ and whole band). In all subjects, bilateral frontal α CSD in the unpleasant session increased compared to the pleasant session, especially in the control group (p < 0.05). CSD of the neuroticism group was significantly higher than that of the control group in the full band at the amygdala and inferior temporal gyrus, and in the α band at the right temporal lobe (p < 0.05). Additionally, we found an increase in functional connectivity between the left insular cortex and right superior temporal gyrus in all subjects during the unpleasant session compared to the pleasant session (p < 0.05). In this study, using EEG analysis, we could find a novel cortical network related to brain mechanisms underlying emotion regulation. Overall findings indicate that it is possible to characterize neuroticism electrophysiologically, which may serve as a neurophysiological marker of this personality trait.

Connectome: Graph theory application in functional brain network architecture

“…Several recent studies from independent groups (Canuet et al, 2011, Barry et al, 2014, Vecchio et al, 2014a, Vecchio et al, 2014b, Vecchio et al, 2015a, Vecchio et al, 2016b, Aoki et al, 2015, Ikeda et al, 2015, Ramyead et al, 2015) have supported the idea of a correct source localization using eLORETA, also by the 10–20 EEG montage.…”

A multilevel longitudinal study of obsessive compulsive symptoms in adolescence: male gender and emotional stability as protective factors

“…Addressing this gap appears to be important as emotional stability presents age-related variations that seem to be more intense during late adolescence [ 51 ]. Specifically, emotional regulation skills, which have been closely associated with emotional stability [ 44 , 52 ], have been shown to vary over adolescent developmental periods with mid adolescence showing the smallest repertoire of emotion regulation strategies [ 53 ]. Furthermore, social-investment theory suggests that personality maturation, which is interwoven with a gradual increase of emotional stability scores, is largely the outcome of normative life transitions to adult roles [ 51 ].…”

How do the parasympathetic nervous system and EEG respond to emotional memory recall?

“…Using EEG, we have shown that emotionally pleasant and unpleasant stimuli evoked different cerebral cortex activities from the resting states . We have also reported, using electrocardiography (ECG) and plethysmography, that ANS responded to emotional stimuli .…”