The relationships between expressed emotion, cortisol, and EEG alpha asymmetry
Article
Article Title | The relationships between expressed emotion, cortisol, and EEG alpha asymmetry |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 6563 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Wang, Grace Y., Crook-Rumsey, Mark, Sumich, Alexander, Dulson, Deb, Gao, Terry T. and Premkumar, Preethi |
Journal Title | Physiology and Behavior |
Journal Citation | 269 |
Article Number | 114276 |
Number of Pages | 10 |
Year | 2023 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Place of Publication | United States |
ISSN | 0031-9384 |
1873-507X | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114276 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938423002019 |
Abstract | Families can express high criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement towards a person with or at risk of mental health problems. Perceiving such high expressed emotion (EE) can be a major psychological stressor for individuals, especially those at risk of mental health problems. To reveal the biological mechanisms underlying the effect of EE on health, this study investigated physiological response (salivary cortisol, frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA)) to verbal criticism and their relationship to anxiety and perceived EE. Using a repeated-measures design, healthy participants attended three testing sessions on non-consecutive days. On each day, participants listened to one of three types of auditory stimuli, namely criticism, neutral or praise, and Electroencephalography (EEG) and salivary cortisol were measured. Results showed a reduction in cortisol following criticism but there was no significant change in FAA. Post-criticism cortisol concentration negatively correlated with perceived EE after controlling for baseline mood. Our findings suggest that salivary cortisol change responds to criticism in non-clinical populations might be largely driven by individual differences in the perception of criticism (e.g., arousal and relevance). Criticisms expressed by audio comments may not be explicitly perceived as an acute emotional stressor, and thus, physiological change responds to criticisms could be minimum. |
Keywords | Expressed emotion; psychological stressor; cortisol; frontal alpha asymmetry |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 520202. Behavioural neuroscience |
520304. Health psychology | |
Byline Affiliations | School of Psychology and Wellbeing |
Centre for Health Research | |
King's College London, United Kingdom | |
Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom | |
Newcastle University, United Kingdom | |
Moreton Bay Regional Council, Australia | |
London South Bank University, United Kingdom |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/yyz28/the-relationships-between-expressed-emotion-cortisol-and-eeg-alpha-asymmetry
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