Temporal dynamics of human emotions: An study combining images and music

Abstract

Much is currently being studied on emotions and their temporal and spatial location. In this framework it is important to considerer the temporal dynamics of affective responses and also the underlying brain activity. In this work we use electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to investigate the neural activity of 13 human volunteers while looking standardized images (positive/negative). Furthermore the subjects were, at the same time, listening to pleasant or unpleasant music. Then we analyzed topographic changes in EEG activity in the time domain. When we compared positive images with positive music versus negative images with negative music we found a significant time window in the period of time 448–632 ms after the stimulus appears, with a clear right lateralization for negative stimuli and left lateralization for positive stimuli. By contrast when we compared positive images with negative music versus negative images with positive music, we found a delayed window compared to the previous case (592–618 ms) and the marked lateralization disappeared. These results demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of this approach to explore the temporal dynamics of human emotions and could help to set the basis for future studies of music perception and emotions.