A Neuroaesthetic Study of the Cerebral Perception and Appreciation of Paintings by Titian Using EEG and Eyetracker Measurements

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. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A method is proposed to determine components of evoked scalp potentials, in terms of times of occurrence (latency) and location on the scalp (topography). The scalp field distributions were evoked by checkerboard reversal and were recorded simultaneously in 47 channels. Component latencies are defined as times of maximal values of the electrical power of the evoked field (a measure of the amount of field relief); this measurement is independent of the choice of the reference electrode. In 10 subjects, two evoked components were found consistently: at 100 and at 140 msec. Plots of scalp locations of the extreme field values (i.e., reference-free data) at the occurrence times of the components showed occipitally positive and anteriorly negative extreme values at 100 msec, and vice versa at 140 msec. The occipital extreme values were surrounded by steep field gradients suggesting occipital generator processes. The polarity reversal of the evoked field distributions between 100 and 140 msec was a quick, jump-like location change of the extreme values in the field. The locations of the extreme field values were stable for long periods around peak times of the power curve. During these periods, the shape of the field remained constant (assessed by the average standard deviation of voltages per electrode between successive field distributions), suggesting also a stable localization of the generating process in depth. The field distributions tended to be concentric around the extreme field values. The major characteristics of the observed scalp fields showed no wave fronts, and no continuous 'traveling' of extreme values over larger distances.