EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY AND ANTERIOR BRAIN ASYMMETRY

描述(改编自申请者摘要)：本研究的重点 程序是基于大脑的个体差异的情绪 反应性。在自然界和自然界中，个体之间存在很大的差异 他们对情绪挑战的反应强度。这些人 情绪反应或情感风格的差异与 易受精神变态影响。在上一批资助期内， 申请者发现基线中的个体差异 头皮前部激活不对称性的电生理测量 地区随着时间的推移是稳定的，表现出极好的内部一致性 气质情绪和人格特质的信度和预测性 对情绪激发者的反应。相对左侧较大的受试者 前额叶激活报告更多的积极和较少的负面情绪和表现 对积极情感的电影片段做出更强烈的积极反应。科目 相对右侧的前额叶激活显示出相反的轮廓 情绪和情绪。在该研究计划的下一阶段，他们将 在这些发现的基础上，检验个体差异的假设 在前额叶激活中，不对称性主要反映恢复功能 遵循情绪刺激，或终止一种情绪的能力 一旦它被启动。调查人员将利用 情绪调节的惊吓范式，惊吓探头既呈现 在呈现情感前景刺激期间和之后。他们 假设受试者的前额叶更偏向右侧 在这两种负波之后，激活将表现出更大的惊吓增强 与表现出更多积极情绪刺激的受试者相比 左侧前额叶激活。有左侧前额叶的人 据预测，激活将显示出对惊吓强度的更多抑制 在正面和负面前景刺激之后。一秒钟内 实验中，自愿压抑或增强情绪的能力将是 检查过了。左侧前额叶激活较大的受试者为 预计与其他人相比，他们更善于抑制负面情绪 那些有更多右侧前额叶激活的人。最后， 第三个实验将利用正电子发射断层扫描(PET)来检查 区域糖代谢的个体差异与以下因素相关 以情绪调节为指标的情绪反应的差异 惊吓任务和厌恶的条件反射任务 考察一个习得的厌恶联想消亡的速度。基座 根据研究人员使用正电子发射计算机断层扫描收集的初始数据，他们预测 受试者相对右侧前额内侧和 杏仁核的新陈代谢活动将显示厌恶者的缓慢灭绝 对负性刺激后的惊吓反应和恢复较差。这些 数据将提供有关神经基质的关键新信息 情感风格的个体差异，将有助于 确定可能特别易受感染的个人 精神变态学。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The focus of this research program is on the brain bases of individual differences in emotional reactivity. There is great variability among individuals in the nature and intensity of their responses to emotional challenges. These individual differences in emotional reactivity or affective style are related to vulnerability to psychopathology. In the previous grant period, the applicants found that individual differences in baseline electrophysiological measures of activation asymmetry in anterior scalp regions are stable over time, show excellent internal consistency reliability and predict important features of dispositional mood and reactivity to emotion elicitors. Subjects with greater relative left-sided prefrontal activation report more positive and less negative mood and show more intense positive responses to positive emotional film clips. Subjects with relative right-sided prefrontal activation show the opposite profile of mood and emotion. In the next phase of this research program, they will build on the findings and examine the hypothesis that individual differences in prefrontal activation asymmetry primarily reflect the recovery function following an emotional stimulus, or the capacity to terminate an emotion once it has been initiated. The investigators will utilize the emotion-modulated startle paradigm, with startle probes presented both during and after the presentation of an emotional foreground stimulus. They hypothesize that subjects with more relative right-sided prefrontal activation will display greater startle potentiation following both negative and positive emotional stimuli compared with subjects showing more left-sided prefrontal activation. Those with left-sided prefrontal activation are predicted to show more inhibition of startle magnitude following both positive and negative foreground stimuli. In a second experiment, the capacity to voluntarily suppress or enhance emotion will be examined. Subjects with greater left-sided prefrontal activation are predicted to display more facility at suppressing negative emotion compared with those having more right-sided prefrontal activation. Finally, the third experiment will utilize positron emission tomography (PET) to examine individual differences in regional glucose metabolism associated with differences in emotional reactivity as indexed by the emotion-modulated startle task as well as an aversive conditioning task where they will examine the rapidity of extinction of a learned aversive association. Based upon initial data the investigators have collected using PET, they predict that subjects with greater relative right-sided medial prefrontal and amygdala metabolic activity will show slower extinction of an aversive response and poorer recovery of startle following negative stimuli. These data will provide critical new information on the neural substrates of individual differences in affective style and will facilitate the identification of individuals who may be particularly vulnerable to psychopathology.