Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay & Krishna P Miyapuram

Centre for Cognitive Science

I n d i a n I n s t i t u t e o f Te c h n o l o g y G a n d h i n a g a r
 Emotions are states that contextually influences homeostatic functions, affects
perceptual saliency and prioritizes executive processes. [Adapted from The Cognitive-Emotional
Brain by Luiz Pessoa, 2013 (The MIT Press)]

 Basic or universal emotions  Background emotion sets

(Paul Ekman, 1971, 1984, 1992):
happiness, sadness, fear, anger,
surprise, disgust (later addition:
contempt).
 Self-referential
(Antonio Damasio, 1999): well-being-
malaise; calm-tense; pain-pleasure.
social
emotions (Bennett & Gillingham,
1991; Hareli et al., 2002, 2006; Leary,
2000; Oatley & Johnson-Laird, 1987,
Smith, 1999, Tangney & Fischer, 1995,
Weiner, 1986): embarrassment, guilt,
shame, jealousy, envy, empathy,
pride, admiration
 1.
9. Nava Rasa or the 9
2.
Relishable States
8. 3. 1. Sringara (romantic)
2. Hasyarasa (comic)
9 3. Raudra (rage-fury)
Rasas 4. Adbhuta (marvellous)
4. 5. Vira (heroism)
6. Bibhatsha (odious)
7. Bhayanaka (terror)
7.
8. Karuna (pathos)
5. 9. Santarasa (peace)
6.
Corresponding Bhava
or the Dominant
States
Rati (love)
Hasyabhava (mirth)
Krodha (anger)
Vismaya (astonishment)
Utshaha (energy)
Jugupsha (disgust)
Bhay (fear)
Shoka (sorrow)
Santabhava (peace)
 Primary processes of emotion: (NOT
basic or universal emotions of
Ekman; Jaak Panksepp, 1998, 2010,
2013 [TED Talk]): defined as primary sub-
neocortical processes of emotion
having their corresponding affective
states which can be artificially
generated by brain stimulation in
animals: seeking (enthusiastic); rage
(pissed off); fear (anxious); lust
(horny); care (tender); grief (lonely,
sad); play (joyous)
 Four-step Cascade of Emotion
(Jerome Kagan, 1997): Provocative
event brain-change feeling
interpretation (emotion).
 Two distinct styles of film-acting can be
seen in popular American (Hollywood) and
popular Indian (Bollywood) cinema.
 Popular American film-acting
 Lee Strasberg's individualistic method-
acting
 based upon the idea that character's
context with his own real-life experience Memento (2000) – Actor Guy Pearce
(Hull, 1985).

 India cinema, since its beginning, is

heavily influenced by the Rasa theory of
'Natyasastra' - popular Indian cinematic
acting especially Bollywood acting is
clearly inter-personal and completely
based on conveying the emotion to
spectator as evidently as possible. Ghajini (2008) – Actor Aamir Khan
 'cultural models of the self’
 cultural orientations on how to attend the individual vs. relational
aspects of self
 can play a critical role in emotional reactivity

 Western (particularly North American) cultural contexts foster an

independent model of the self that is relatively bounded, unique,
and autonomous from others.
 In contrast, East Asian cultural contexts foster an interdependent
model of the self that emphasizes continuity between individuals
and members of their ingroup, such as family members'
[Chentsova-Dutton, Y.E.; Tsai, J. (2010) Self-focused attention and emotional reactivity:
The role of culture. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(3), 507-519.]
Our aim was to analyze, through EEG, the frequency
patterns of brain activity generated through nine different
emotional responses based on Indian Rasa theory while
watching films from different cultures (Bollywood and
Hollywood) and to find out whether these activities would
show specific spectral characteristics and whether EEG
source-localization would correlate with the spectral data.
 To find out 9 (or 18!!) different
emotion circuits.

 Try to match the regional

specificity of prior fMRI studies
on emotion.

 Trying to understand temporal

changes of emotional response
through ERP analysis.
 20 participants during which they were asked to
view chosen film clips
 of 9 different emotional states from Hollywood and
Bollywood.

 128 channel high density Geodesic EEG

Systems™.

 Frequency domain analysis

 Source-localization: sLORETA (standardized

low resolution electromagnetic tomography)
 1.Data acquisition was done through the Netstation software, filtered,
segmented and then imported at EEGLAB platform for further analysis.
 2. At EEGLAB EOG, EMG corrections were made in Automated Artifact Removal
(AAR) plug-in and Bad Channel Replacement corrections were done in
SPHSPLINE plug-in.
 3. Spectral analysis was done in EEGLAB in the STUDY-design platform for all
subjects.
 4. Delta (0.5 – 3.5 Hz), Theta (3.5 – 7.5 Hz), Alpha (7.5 – 12.5 Hz), Beta (12.5 – 30
Hz) and Gamma (30 – 60 Hz) frequency distributions were analyzed by
constructing spectral topographic-plots for all the emotions.
 5. EEG data files as well as the coordinate information file were exported from
EEGLAB to the LORETA software (version: 2015-12-22)
 6. sLORETA was performed for all the subjects and LORETA-Global-Frequency-
Power (lorGFP) and the regions of activity in the slice-viewer and 3D cortex
viewer were analyzed.
60

55

50

delta _bollywood
45
theta_bollywood
40 alpha_bollywood
35
beta_bollywood
gamma_bollywood
30
60

55

50

delta_hollywood
45
theta_hollywood
40
alpha_hollywood
35
beta_hollywood
gamma_hollywood
30
 1. Across the majority of emotions in both Bollywood
and Hollywood a delta-theta activity is seen in the
left Anterior-Frontal (AF3) scalp region. In disgust for
both Bollywood and Hollywood the delta-theta
activity is highly localized in left Anterior-Frontal AF3 AF3
(AF3).

2. In sadness and fear for both Hollywood and

Bollywood the delta-theta activity is globally
AF4-F2
distributed with high intensity at left Anterior-Frontal
(AF3) and with lesser intensity at left Centro-Parietal
(CP1) and region between right Anterior-Frontal (AF4) CP1
and right Frontal (F2)

3. In humor, anger, tranquility and heroism the

response in Bollywood was more global in terms of
delta-theta activity than Hollywood.
4. Romantic love shows the least delta-theta activity
in comparison to other emotions with the Hollywood
version having more global effect.

5. Surprise shows two distinctly different regions in

Bollywood and Hollywood where in Bollywood the AF4-F2
delta-theta activity is highly localized in left Anterior-
Frontal (AF3and in Hollywood the delta-theta activity
is highly localized in the region between right
AF3
Anterior-Frontal (AF4) and right Frontal (F2).
 1. An increased Delta-Theta (0.5-7.5 Hz) activity can be identified
as an important marker for emotional reactivity across the range
of emotions investigated in the study.
 2. One of the common scalp area of this delta-theta activity across
the majority of emotions in both Bollywood and Hollywood was
the left Anterior-Frontal (AF3) scalp region.
 3. In majority of the emotions including humor, anger, tranquility
and heroism the response in Bollywood was more global in terms
of delta-theta activity than Hollywood.
 4. The source-localization results show a strong uniformity of
activation in the frontal gyrus and generally corresponds with the
spectral topography.