EEG patterns under positive/negative body postures and emotion recall tasks

Authors

  • Hsin-Yi Tsai Kaohsiung Medical University
  • Erik Peper San Francisco State University
  • I-Mei Lin Kaohsiung Medical University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15540/nr.3.1.23

Keywords:

electroencephalogram, body posture, emotional recall, depression

Abstract

Introduction: Erect and slouch body posture affect access to positive and negative emotion. When sitting in erect posture, participants reported more positive emotion and thoughts and more negative emotion and thoughts when sitting in slouch posture. This study explores electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns under erect/slouch of body posture with recalling positive/negative events. Methods: A 2 * 2 Latin Square design were applied. Twenty-eight healthy college students were instructed to sit quietly with their eyes closed for one minute and then to sit with erect or slouch postures with recall happy or depressive events for one minute each. The Cz EEG with link-ear references was recorded, and the amplitudes of EEG were analyzed under five stages. Results: There were significant higher amplitudes of beta2, beta3 and beta4 under slouch posture with recalling happy event than under erect posture with recalling happy or depressive events. There was no significant difference between body posture and emotional recall on low-frequency oscillatory activity. Conclusion: Evoking positive thoughts under a slouch body position takes much more effort/arousal as indicated by the significant increase high-frequency oscillatory activities than other positions. The implication is that to recall positive and negative thoughts it is much more difficult in the collapsed than erect position.

Author Biographies

Hsin-Yi Tsai, Kaohsiung Medical University

Department of Psychology

Erik Peper, San Francisco State University

Institute for Holistic Health Studies

I-Mei Lin, Kaohsiung Medical University

Department of Psychology

References

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Published

2016-03-08

Issue

Section

Research Papers