The neurophysiological mechanism of positive versus negative emotions is insufficiently understood. In the present study, we examined the effect of event recall tasks on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Nine healthy adults were instructed to recall episodes of their life associated with positive (happiness) and negative (anger) emotion, both silently and verbally. Heart rate (HR) changes were simultaneously measured. NIRS showed an increased oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in the bilateral PFC during silent and verbal recall of both positive and negative episodes. The changes of oxy-Hb in the bilateral PFC during silent recall of negative episodes were significantly larger than those during silent recall of positive episodes (p < 0.01). There was no difference in average changes of oxy-Hb between silent and verbal recall of negative episodes (p > 0.95), while changes of oxy-Hb during verbal recall of positive episodes were larger than those during silent recall of positive episodes (p < 0.05). Both verbal and silent recall of positive and negative episodes increased HR; however, verbal recall caused larger increases of HR than silent recall (p < 0.01). The present results suggest that recall of negative episodes affect the PFC activity, which plays a key role in cognitive control of emotions, more than positive episodes.
Keywords: Anger; Emotional recall; HR; Happiness; NIRS.