Eika Okamoto

Beta Activities in EEG Associated with Emotional Stress

Abstract The aim of this paper is to assess whether objective time-course physiological responses from electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) can quantify stress level or not. Physi...

Emotion Regulation of Neuroticism: Emotional Information Processing Related to Psychosomatic State Evaluated by Electroencephalography and Exact Low-Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography

Emotion regulation is the process that adjusts the type or amount of emotion when we experience an emotional situation. The aim of this study was to reveal quantitative changes in brain activity during emotional information processing related to psychosomatic states and to determine electrophysiological features of neuroticism. Twenty-two healthy subjects (mean age 25 years, 14 males and 8 females) were registered. Electroencephalography (EEG) was measured during an emotional audiovisual memory task under three conditions (neutral, pleasant and unpleasant sessions). We divided the subjects into two groups using the Cornell Medical Index (CMI): (CMI-I: control group, n = 10: CMI-II, III or IV: neuroticism group, n = 12). We analyzed the digital EEG data using exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) current source density (CSD) and functional connectivity analysis in several frequency bands (δ, θ, α, β, γ and whole band). In all subjects, bilateral frontal α CSD in the unpleasant session increased compared to the pleasant session, especially in the control group (p < 0.05). CSD of the neuroticism group was significantly higher than that of the control group in the full band at the amygdala and inferior temporal gyrus, and in the α band at the right temporal lobe (p < 0.05). Additionally, we found an increase in functional connectivity between the left insular cortex and right superior temporal gyrus in all subjects during the unpleasant session compared to the pleasant session (p < 0.05). In this study, using EEG analysis, we could find a novel cortical network related to brain mechanisms underlying emotion regulation. Overall findings indicate that it is possible to characterize neuroticism electrophysiologically, which may serve as a neurophysiological marker of this personality trait.

Measurement of Personality Stability in Infants and Young Adults Under Emotional Stimuli Using a Brain Functional Reaction Method

Objective: We abstracted the relationship between parents′ nurturing attitudes toward their children and the child’s personality stability in a psychological way, and evaluated and quantified the relationship between the intensity degrees of brain functional responses to emotional stimuli and the mental stabilities of infants and young adults in a physiological way. Methods: Children’s personality stability and parents’ nurturing attitudes were measured using psychological methods, and brain functions of the children were measured using EEG and MEG under resting and under emotional stimuli. Results: Our results in the psychological findings showed that nurturing attitudes influenced the personality stability of the infant, but personality stability in adolescence was no longer affected by the parent’s nurturing attitudes. Our results in physiological findings showed that the brain fimctional activity on the occipital area under pleasant stimuli was provoked if the personality of the young adult were...

P2-20. Quantitative evaluation of EEG using sLORETA during emotional information processing related to psychosomatic state

In order to quantitatively evaluate EEG using sLORETA during the emotional information processing related to psychosomatic states, 22 healthy subjects (mean age 25.0, male/female 14/8) were enrolled and were classified into 2 groups by Cornell Medical Index (CMI): 10 subjects with CMI-I (healthy group) and 12 subjects with CMI-II, III or IV (neurotic tendency group). EEG was measured under three emotional audiovisual recollection tasks (neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant sessions). Current source density (CSD) analysis and functional connectivity analysis were performed using sLORETA in several frequency bands. In whole subjects, we found a bilateral increase in frontal alpha CSD in unpleasant session compared with pleasant session, especially in healthy group. Compared with healthy group, the neurotic tendency group exhibited significantly higher CSD in whole band at amygdala and the inferior temporal gyrus, and in alpha band at right temporal lobe. Whole subjects showed increased functional connectivity between left insular cortex and right superior temporal gyrus in unpleasant session compared with pleasant session. Our findings suggest that induced frontal alpha CSD might show some neural activity during emotional information processing and that higher CSD in the neurotic tendency group might reflect the different emotional processing in this group.

The effects of stress states in the brain

The objective of this study is to assess the interaction between brain activity for cognitive and emotional processing and stress states in the healthy adults. The brain activities of thirty-three healthy adults divided into stress and non-stress groups according to their stress responses were assessed during emotional audio-visual stimuli using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results showed that a significant correlation was found between the profile of mood states (POMS) subscale scores for Fatigue and the right inferior parietal gyrus in the Relaxed stimuli (r=−0.359), and POMS subscale scores for Depression-Defection and the right inferior parietal gyrus in the Unpleasant stimuli (r=−0.371). These results suggest that the beginnings of stress states, especially the depression or fatigue states, represent deficits in the attention process.

Response in cingulate cortex to emotional stimuli to evaluate personality stability in fMRI

The aim of this research is to evaluate the relationship between the response in cingulate cortex to emotional stimuli and the personal stabilities of people using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We assessed personality features and physical symptoms of the subjects using psychological tests and categorized the subjects into two groups: the mentally stable group and the unstable group. Moreover, we measured brain functional reaction under relax, pleasant, unpleasant human relationship, and generally unpleasant stimuli using fMRI. The results in the fMRI showed that the left and right posterior cingulate cortex activities under the human stimuli significantly increased with the ascent in the value of mental instability. And the right posterior cingulate cortex activities under the relax and unpleasant stimuli, and left and right posterior cingulate cortex activities under the pleasant stimuli tended to increase with the ascent in the value of mental instability. Our findings suggested that neural alarm system in cingulate would crucially influence the emotional reaction of the mentally unstable people.

Hippocampal response to emotional stimuli to evaluate personality stability in fMRI

The aim of this research is to evaluate the relationship between hippocampal responses to emotional stimuli and the mental stabilities of people using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We assessed personality features and physical symptoms of the subjects using psychological tests and categorized the subjects into two groups: the mentally stable group and the unstable group. Moreover, we measured brain functional reaction under relax, pleasant, unpleasant human relationship, and generally unpleasant stimuli using fMRI. The results in the fMRI showed that the hippocampus activities under the pleasant, human, and unpleasant stimuli increased with the ascent in the value of mental instability. Our findings suggested that memory process in hippocampus would crucially influence the emotional reaction of the mentally unstable people.

P24-20 Assessment of stress states based on EEG activity using multiple regression analysis

band, age-group under 30 has a smallest Z-score among three groups due to suppression by photic stimulus. The age-group from 30 to 60 showed the value intermediate between under 30 and over 60. Conclusions: We proposed the analysis method eliminating individual difference and then applied the method to photic driving response of normal subjects. Z-scores at frequencies such as the fundamental wave and higher harmonics is closely related to age. Significance: By using our statistical analysis method, the frequency characteristics of Z-score varied with advancing age drastically. Our method may be helpful to evaluate brain aging.

P24-3 Visualization for coherence analysis of EEG under the emotional stimuli

The objective of this research is to visualize coherence and timelag values between the electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes under emotional stimuli. The information propagates to a suitable area and is processed in the correct way in the brain of a healthy person. When a series of processes has some problems, a psychoneurotic disorder can be caused. Twenty-three healthy graduate students with a mean age of 25.0±4.8 (14 men and 9 women) were assessed for their neurotic states using the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) and divided into two groups: normal (I) and neurotic (II-IV) groups. EEG was measured under emotional tasks (relaxed, pleasant, and unpleasant sessions) using audio-visual stimuli and analyzed using coherence analysis. The coherence and time-lag values in alpha bands between EEGs of two electrodes in all sets were calculated in three sessions. We had also developed the user-interfaces including interactive graphical user interface (GUI) to visualize the coherence and time-lag values. The results showed that the coherence values of 7.8 10.8 Hz and the correlation in an anteroposterior direction in the unpleasant session tended to be larger than those in the pleasant session in group I, while the coherence values of 11.3 12.3 Hz in the unpleasant session tended to be larger than those in the pleasant session in group II-IV, and the high-correlation area tended to be localized to compare with those in the pleasant session. These events suggest that the information processes in the brain under an unpleasant situation of the neurotic people would be different from those of the normal people.

P27-10 Relationship between personality stability and brain reaction area under the emotional stimuli

M. Cincotta1, A. Borgheresi1, I. Pampaloni2, F. Giovannelli1,3, S. Bernardi4, A. Cantisani5, G. Zaccara1, S. Pallanti4,5 1Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority, Florence, Italy, 2Department of Psychiatry, Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust, UK, 3Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy, 4Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA, 5Department of Psychiatry, University of Florence, Florence, Italy