Brushstrokes of the Emotional Brain: Cortical Asymmetries for Valence Dimension

Abstract

Understanding the neurophysiology of emotions, the neuronal structures involved in the processing of emotional information and the circuits by which they act, is key to design applications in the field of affective neuroscience, both to advance in new treatments and in applications of brain-computer interactions. With this objective, we have carried out a study of cortical asymmetries based on the spectral power and differential entropy (DE) of the electroencephalographic signal of 24 subjects stimulated with videos of positive and negative emotional content. The results have shown different interhemispheric asymmetries throughout the cortex, presenting opposite patterns for both emotional categories. In addition, increased activity has also been observed in the right hemisphere and in anterior cortical regions during emotion processing. These preliminary results are encouraging for elucidating the neuronal circuits of the emotional brain.