Frontal electrocortical and cardiovascular reactivity during happiness andanger

The present study investigated electrocortical and cardiovascular reactivit y during positive and negative emotion, and examined the relation of asymme tric 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 hea rt rate (HR) responses were assessed while subjects engaged in laboratory t asks (personally-relevant recall tasks and film clips) designed to elicit h appiness 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, asso ciated 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 a ddition, a right lateralized frontal EEG response during anger-inducing tas ks was associated with greater concomitant systolic BP (P < 0.03) and diast olic BP (P < 0.008) reactivity. Exploratory analyses also indicated that me n who displayed a left lateralized frontal EEG response during happiness-in ducing 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 reacti vity in healthy adults. (C) 255 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.