Neuropsychological effects of hostility and pain on emotion perception

Abstract

In order to examine the neuropsychological effects of hostility on emotional and pain processing, auditory emotion perception before and after cold pressor pain in high and low hostile men was examined. Additionally, quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) was recorded between each experimental manipulation. Results indicated that identification of emotion post cold pressor differed as a function of hostility level and ear. Primary QEEG findings indicated increased left temporal activation after cold pressor exposure and increased reactivity to cold pressor pain in the high hostile group. Low hostile men had a bilateral increase in high beta magnitude at the temporal lobes and a bilateral increase in delta magnitude at the frontal lobes after the cold pressor. Taken together, results from the dichotic listening task and the QEEG suggest decreased cerebral laterality and left hemisphere activation for emotional and pain processing in high hostile men.

Keywords:

• Hostility
• Electroencephalography
• Emotion
• Cold pressor
• Dichotic listening
• Pain

A special thanks to Daniel Voyer for supplying the stimuli for the dichotic listening task.

Notes

¹The Cook Medley Hostility Scale is a self-report questionnaire purported to tap cynicism, anger, suspiciousness, and resentment in the hostility construct (Smith & Frohm, 1985). The scale consists of 50 true false items. The current grouping criterion has been used previously in our lab (Demaree & Harrison, 1997; Demaree et al., 2002; Harrison & Gorelczenko, 1990; Williamson & Harrison, 2003) and has been found to be successful. The general nature of the questions make it a trait, rather than state indicator of hostility (Demaree & Harrison, 1997). Its validity as a predictor of medical and psychological outcomes has made it one of the more commonly used measurements of hostility (Contrada & Jussim, 1992). Some example questions from the scale include: “I have sometimes stayed away from another person because I feared saying or doing something that I might regret afterwards”; “I feel that I have often been punished without cause”; “I have often had to take orders from someone who did not know as much as I did.”