Spontaneous EEG activity and spontaneous emotion regulation

Variability in both frontal and parietal spontaneous EEG activity, using alpha and beta band power and theta/beta and delta/beta ratios, was explored in a sample of 96 healthy volunteers as a potential correlate of individual differences in spontaneous emotion regulation (SER). Following a baseline EEG recording, participants were asked to continuously rate their discomfort while looking at affective pictures, as well as for a period of time after exposure. Greater spontaneous beta band power in parietal locations, lower frontal and parietal delta/beta ratios, and lower parietal theta/beta ratio were associated with lower ratings of discomfort after the offset of unpleasant pictures. Moreover, lower parietal delta/beta ratio was also related to less time needed to recover from discomfort after exposure to aversive pictures, while only a greater frontal and parietal a band power appeared to be associated with faster recovery from discomfort induced by normative-neutral pictures. However, parietal delta/beta ratio was the only predictor of both minimum discomfort ratings and time needed to downregulate following exposure to unpleasant pictures, and frontal alpha band power the only spontaneous EEG index that predicted variability in spontaneous down-regulation after the exposure to normative-neutral pictures. Results are discussed focusing on the utility of diverse spontaneous EEG measures in several cortical regions when capturing trait-like individual differences in emotion regulation capabilities and processes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.