Prefrontal region activity in the emotion elicitation

Abstract

To find out the mechanism of brain activity during emotional elicitation is an important issue for understanding mental disorders including depression and anxiety disorders. Prefrontal cortex of the brain has received considerable attention because it is thought to have the important rule of emotion regulation. This presentation provides an overview of previous study on emotion and the brain, and the introduction of our research. In our research, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure prefrontal activities with healthy college students during emotion elicitation. NIRS is the noninvasive device that can mesure cerebral blood flow. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al., 1995) was used to elicit emotions. Fifteen negative, 15 neutral and 15 positive pictures of the IAPS were presented in a block design. Prefrontal activity was compared in each block.