Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 84, Issue 3, July 2010, Pages 451-462
Biological Psychology

Review
The role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotion-related phenomena: A review and update

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2009.08.010Get rights and content

Abstract

Conceptual and empirical approaches to the study of the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotional processes are reviewed. Although early research suggested that greater left than right frontal cortical activity was associated with positive affect, more recent research, primarily on anger, suggests that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with approach motivation, which can be positive (e.g., enthusiasm) or negative in valence (e.g., anger). In addition to reviewing this research on anger, research on guilt, bipolar disorder, and various types of positive affect is reviewed with relation to their association with asymmetric frontal cortical activity. The reviewed research not only contributes to a more complete understanding of the emotive functions of asymmetric frontal cortical activity, but it also points to the importance of considering motivational direction as separate from affective valence in psychological models of emotional space.

Section snippets

Asymmetric frontal cortical activity and the experience of affective valence

The asymmetric involvement of prefrontal cortical regions in positive affect (or approach motivation) and negative affect (or withdrawal motivation) was suggested over 70 years ago by observations of persons who had suffered damage to the right or left anterior cortex (Goldstein, 1939). Later research supported these observations using the Wada test, which involves injecting amytal, a barbiturate derivative, into one of the internal carotid arteries and suppressing the activity of one

Trait affective styles and resting asymmetric frontal activity

In the EEG research, depression has been found to relate to resting frontal asymmetric activity, with depressed individuals showing relatively less left than right frontal brain activity (Jacobs and Snyder, 1996, Schaffer et al., 1983), even when in remission status (Henriques and Davidson, 1990). Other research has revealed that trait positive affect is associated with greater left than right frontal cortical activity, whereas trait negative affect is associated with greater right than left

Asymmetric frontal cortical activity and the expression of motivational direction

In 1997, two studies observed that trait approach motivation was related to greater left than right frontal activity at resting baseline (Harmon-Jones and Allen, 1997, Sutton and Davidson, 1997). One of these studies found that trait “withdrawal” motivation was related to greater right than left frontal activity at baseline (Sutton and Davidson, 1997), whereas the other found no relationship between trait withdrawal and asymmetric frontal activity (Harmon-Jones and Allen, 1997). Subsequent

Other neural measures

The reviewed research strongly suggests that greater relative left frontal cortical activity is associated with approach motivation. However, several important questions remain. For instance, EEG methods utilized in most of this past research do not provide precise information regarding which specific areas of the left frontal cortex are involved in approach motivation. Source localization of EEG alpha power suggests that the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved (Pizzagalli et al.,

Summary and conclusion

Much research has supported the thesis that greater left as compared to right frontal activity is associated with approach motivational processes. Other research has suggested that greater right as compared to left frontal activity is associated with withdrawal motivational processes. However, the research testing the withdrawal-right-frontal-region part of the motivational direction model is not as extensive as the research testing the approach-left-frontal-region portion of the model. More

Acknowledgements

Work on this article was supported by National Science Foundation grants BCS 0350435 and BCS 0643348.

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