title: Frontal electrocortical and cardiovascular reactivity during happiness and anger.
abstract: The present study investigated electrocortical and cardiovascular reactivity during positive and negative emotion, and examined the relation of asymmetric frontal lobe activation to cardiovascular responses. Participants were 30 healthy, right-handed university students (mean age, 23.9; 60% female; 76% Caucasian). Electroencephalographic (EEG), blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) responses were assessed while subjects engaged in laboratory tasks (personally-relevant recall tasks and film clips) designed to elicit happiness or anger. Happiness-inducing tasks evoked more prominent left than right frontal EEG activation, and greater left frontal EEG activation than anger-inducing tasks. However, anger-inducing tasks were, on average, associated with comparable left and right frontal EEG activation. Irrespective of emotional valence, cardiovascular activation was more pronounced during personally-relevant recall tasks than during the viewing of film clips. During anger recall, both greater left frontal EEG response (r=-0.46, P<0.02) and greater right frontal EEG response (r=-0.45, P<0.02) were correlated significantly with increased HR reactivity during the task. In addition, a right lateralized frontal EEG response during anger-inducing tasks was associated with greater concomitant systolic BP (P<0.03) and diastolic BP (P<0.008) reactivity. Exploratory analyses also indicated that men who displayed a left lateralized frontal EEG response during happiness-inducing tasks showed the greatest concomitant systolic BP and HR reactivity (P's<0.03). These findings suggest that asymmetric frontal EEG responses to emotional arousal may elicit different patterns of cardiovascular reactivity in healthy adults.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA. waldstei@umbc.edu
authors: S R
authors: SR
authors: Waldstein
authors: W J
authors: WJ
authors: Kop
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Schmidt
authors: A J
authors: AJ
authors: Haufler
authors: D S
authors: DS
authors: Krantz
authors: N A
authors: NA
authors: Fox
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006240:Happiness; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male