Prefrontal asymmetry predicts affect, but not beliefs about affect

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• Self-reported emotions are susceptible to biases from situational or identity beliefs.
• These biases are influenced by memory, with recent memories reflecting felt experience and distant memories reflecting beliefs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry as a predictor of feeling-based versus belief-based self-reports of homesickness.
• To determine if frontal EEG asymmetry reflects affective vulnerability in memory recall.

Main Methods:

• Assessed frontal EEG asymmetry in college freshmen and sophomores.
• Correlated EEG asymmetry with feeling-based and belief-based self-reports of freshman year homesickness.

Main Results:

• Greater right frontal EEG asymmetry significantly predicted more experiential, feeling-based reports of homesickness.
• No significant association was found between frontal EEG asymmetry and belief-based, retrospective reports of homesickness.

Conclusions:

• Frontal EEG asymmetry serves as a valid measure of affective vulnerability.
• The link between frontal EEG asymmetry and self-reported affect is evident when reports capture current feelings rather than beliefs about past emotions.