[Analysis of characteristics of alpha electroencephalogram during the interaction between emotion and cognition based...

Studying the functional network during the interaction between emotion and cognition is an important way to reveal the underlying neural connections in the brain and nowadays, it has become a hot topic in cognitive neuroscience. Granger causality (GC), based on multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) model, and being able to be used to analyse causal characteristic of brain regions has been widely used in electroencephalography (EEG) in event-related paradigms research. In this study, we recorded the EEGs from 13 normal subjects (6 males and 7 females) during emotional face search task. We utilized Granger causality to establish a causal model of different brain areas under different rhythms at specific stages of cognition, and then convinced the brain dynamic network topological properties in the process of emotion and cognition. Therefore, we concluded that in the alpha band, (1) negative emotion face induced larger causal effects than positive ones; (2) 100-200ms emotional signal was the most prominent ones while 300-400ms and 700-800ms would take the second place; (3) The rear brain region modulated the front in the process of causal modulation; (4) The frontal and pillow area involved in the brain causal modulation as a key brain area; and (5) Negative partiality existed in the information processing, especially during 0-100ms after the negative expression stimulation.