Lateralized representation of affect, affect cognizance and the coronary-prone personality

Forty-eight right-handed subjects equally divided among four cells defined by sex (male versus female) and familial handedness (at least one member of the immediate family who is left-handed or ambidextrous versus none) were asked to recall times they were angry, anxious and content while tonic SC and bilateral parietal alpha-band EEG power was recorded. Subjects also completed the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) and scales assessing their subjective success (SS) at achieving each affective state and the cognitive mode (verbal/visuospatial) they used to do so. Contrary to previous research, greater left parietal activity occurred during affective arousal. Subjects reporting no experienced arousal during the anger and anxious conditions were higher on the overall type A and speed and impatience scales of the JAS. 'Repression,' in the sense of greater autonomic arousal (as measured by increases in tonic SC above baseline) despite no distinction in SS, was observed in type A relative to non-type A subjects. For males this effect was most pronounced during self-stimulation of anxiety. For females, the contentment condition produced the effect. Type A subjects tended to produce greater relative left parietal activity than non-type A subjects. Results are discussed in terms of automatistic nonawareness of affective arousal as an overlearned, achievement-facilitating coping mechanism in type As.