Vidal Marc, Moura Nádia, Van Kerrebroeck Bavo, Aguilera Ana M, Fritz Thomas H, Leman Marc
IPEM, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Data Analysis, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jun;62(6):e70093. doi: 10.1111/psyp.70093.
Turbulence-like dynamics in brain activity have been proposed as a signature of systems operating near criticality, and may reflect changes in neuronal function associated with emotional states. In this paper, we hypothesize that motor behavior linked to emotional expression modulates turbulence, reflecting a shift towards more streamlined brain dynamics characteristic of emotional motor control. We assessed EEG turbulence in 30 healthy participants in a motor paradigm varying in both task demand and degree of emotionality. Conditions included singing, swaying, responding to a virtual conductor of variable expressivity, having your own body movements mirrored by a virtual agent, and combinations thereof. Results showed an inverse relation of turbulence intensity in the alpha range to both degree of movement and perceived level of task emotionality, which was also true for the high gamma range, but to a lesser extent. When factoring in task demand, the effect of level of emotionality in the alpha range deteriorated. This is physiological evidence for why physical arousal is likely to increase the level of perceived emotional engagement or even be misinterpreted as such. Our findings suggest high gamma activity is a more accurate indicator of emotionality during motor tasks and can be key to differentiating EEG signatures of emotional motor control, which has been shown to be partly autonomous from voluntary motor control.
大脑活动中类似湍流的动力学已被提出作为接近临界状态运行的系统的一个特征,并且可能反映与情绪状态相关的神经元功能变化。在本文中,我们假设与情绪表达相关的运动行为会调节湍流,这反映了向情绪运动控制更简化的大脑动力学的转变。我们在一个运动范式中评估了30名健康参与者的脑电图湍流,该范式在任务需求和情绪程度上都有所不同。条件包括唱歌、摇摆、对具有不同表现力的虚拟指挥做出反应、让虚拟代理镜像自己的身体动作以及它们的组合。结果表明,α波段的湍流强度与运动程度和任务情绪的感知水平呈反比关系,高γ波段也是如此,但程度较小。当考虑任务需求时,α波段情绪水平的影响减弱。这是生理证据,解释了为什么身体唤醒可能会增加感知到的情绪投入水平,甚至可能被误解为如此。我们的研究结果表明,高γ活动是运动任务中情绪的更准确指标,并且可能是区分情绪运动控制脑电图特征的关键,情绪运动控制已被证明部分独立于自主运动控制。