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Codispoti M, De Cesarei A, Ferrari V. Alpha-band oscillations and emotion: A review of studies on picture perception. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14438. [PMID: 37724827 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Although alpha-band activity has long been a focus of psychophysiological research, its modulation by emotional value during picture perception has only recently been studied systematically. Here, we review these studies and report that the most consistent alpha oscillatory pattern indexing emotional processing is an enhanced desynchronization (ERD) over posterior sensors when viewing emotional compared with neutral pictures. This enhanced alpha ERD is not specific to unpleasant picture content, as previously proposed for other measures of affective response, but has also been observed for pleasant stimuli. Evidence suggests that this effect is not confined to the alpha band but that it also involves a desynchronization of the lower beta frequencies (8-20 Hz). The emotional modulation of alpha ERD occurs even after massive stimulus repetition and when emotional cues serve as task-irrelevant distractors, consistent with the hypothesis that evaluative processes are mandatory in emotional picture processing. A similar enhanced ERD has been observed for other significant cues (e.g., conditioned aversive stimuli, or in anticipation of a potential threat), suggesting that it reflects cortical excitability associated with the engagement of the motivational systems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Vera Ferrari
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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Li Y, Chen X, Zhang Q, Xu W, Li J, Ji F, Dong Q, Chen C, Li J. Effects of working memory span training on top-down attentional asymmetry at both neural and behavioral levels. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:5937-5946. [PMID: 36617305 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The leftward asymmetry of the visual field and posterior brain regions, a feature of the normal attention process, can be strengthened by brain stimulation, e.g. administering alpha frequency stimulation to the left posterior cortex. However, whether it can be strengthened by cognitive training, especially with nonlateralized tasks, is unknown. We used a dataset from a 2-month-long randomized controlled trial and compared the control group with 2 training groups trained with backward or forward memory span tasks. A lateralized change detection task with varied memory loads was administered as the pre-, mid-, and post-tests with simultaneous electroencephalographic recording. Intrasubject response variability (IRV) and the alpha modulation index (MI) were calculated. Analysis of IRV showed more enhanced leftward attentional bias in the backward group than in the other groups. Consistently, analysis of MI found that its enhancements in the left hemisphere (but not the right hemisphere) of the backward group were significantly higher than those of the other groups. Further analysis revealed that left MI changes predicted left IRV improvement. All of these results indicated that backward memory span training enhanced leftward attentional asymmetry at both the behavioral and neural levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, No.19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, P.R. China
| | - Xiongying Chen
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital & the Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, No.5, Ankang Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing 100088, P.R. China
| | - Qiumei Zhang
- School of Mental Health, Jining Medical University, 45# Jianshe South Road, Jining, Shandong 272013, P.R. China
| | - Wending Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, No.19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, P.R. China
| | - Jin Li
- Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 95 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, P.R. China.,National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 95 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, P.R. China
| | - Feng Ji
- School of Mental Health, Jining Medical University, 45# Jianshe South Road, Jining, Shandong 272013, P.R. China
| | - Qi Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, No.19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, P.R. China
| | - Chuansheng Chen
- Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, 4201 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway,CA 92697, United States
| | - Jun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, No.19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, P.R. China
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Sabu P, Stuldreher IV, Kaneko D, Brouwer AM. A Review on the Role of Affective Stimuli in Event-Related Frontal Alpha Asymmetry. FRONTIERS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fcomp.2022.869123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Frontal alpha asymmetry refers to the difference between the right and left alpha activity over the frontal brain region. Increased activity in the left hemisphere has been linked to approach motivation and increased activity in the right hemisphere has been linked to avoidance or withdrawal. However, research on alpha asymmetry is diverse and has shown mixed results, which may partly be explained by the potency of the used stimuli to emotionally and motivationally engage participants. This review gives an overview of the types of affective stimuli utilized with the aim to identify which stimuli elicit a strong approach-avoidance effect in an affective context. We hope this contributes to better understanding of what is reflected by alpha asymmetry, and in what circumstances it may be an informative marker of emotional state. We systematically searched the literature for studies exploring event-related frontal alpha asymmetry in affective contexts. The search resulted in 61 papers, which were categorized in five stimulus categories that were expected to differ in their potency to engage participants: images & sounds, videos, real cues, games and other tasks. Studies were viewed with respect to the potency of the stimuli to evoke significant approach-avoidance effects on their own and in interaction with participant characteristics or condition. As expected, passively perceived stimuli that are multimodal or realistic, seem more potent to elicit alpha asymmetry than unimodal stimuli. Games, and other stimuli with a strong task-based component were expected to be relatively engaging but approach-avoidance effects did not seem to be much clearer than the studies using perception of videos and real cues. While multiple factors besides stimulus characteristics determine alpha asymmetry, and we did not identify a type of affective stimulus that induces alpha asymmetry highly consistently, our results indicate that strongly engaging, salient and/or personally relevant stimuli are important to induce an approach-avoidance effect.
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