Anterior brain activities related to emotional stress

Severe and chronic stress can induce many kinds of diseases including mental disorders. The aim of this paper is to assess whether objective physiological responses from an electroencephalogram (EEG) and an electrocardiogram (ECG) can qualify stress level or not. The stress levels of twenty-two healthy subjects were evaluated with questionnaire methods, and the subjects were categorized into two groups: the Stress Group and the Non-Stress Group. An EEG and an ECG were measured under emotional stress tasks using audio-visual stimuli and analyzed with a discrete Fourier transform (DFT). The results showed that beta activities in the frontal areas of the Non-Stress Group were larger than those of the Stress Group soon after the emotionally Unpleasant stimuli. These events suggest that people with less stress (the Non-Stress Group) have a high stress-resistance potential in their brain activities as biological reactions.