AFFECTIVE STYLE AND AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS - PERSPECTIVES FROM AFFECTIVENEUROSCIENCE

Individual differences in emotional reactivity or affective style can be fruitfully decomposed into more elementary constituents. Several se parable features of affective style are identified such as the thresho ld for reactivity, the peak amplitude of response, the rise time to pe ak and the recovery time. The latter two characteristics constitute co mponents of affective chronometry. The circuitry that underlies two fu ndamental forms of motivation and emotion-approach and withdrawal rela ted processes-is described. Data on individual differences in function al activity in certain components of these circuits are next reviewed, with an emphasis on the nomological network of associations surroundi ng individual differences in asymmetric prefrontal activation. The rel evance of such differences for understanding the nature of the affecti ve dysfunction in affective disorders is then considered. The article ends by considering what the prefrontal cortex ''does'' in certain com ponents of affective style and highlights some of the important questi ons for future research.