Abstract:

The relative left frontal activation (RLFA) means the activity of the left frontal is larger than the right when process positive emotion, which may due to the process of positive valence or the process of approach motivation. For clear this question, paper collected associated evidence from two area of research: one was the area of the relationship between anger (include both state and trait) and RLFA, the other was the area of whether the change of the body posture (included both whole body posture change and the contraction of unilateral muscle) can affect the RLFA. The consistent finding of the former was the left frontal involves in the process of approach motivation. However, the latter found different body posture can change the relative activation level of left frontal. The left frontal involved in the process of approach motivation can be proofed by converging these two kinds of evidence. In addition, based on these evidence, we gave some suggestion for the future research: the meaning of avoiding anger should give a more clear definition; whether anger could induce a approach motivation during the later step of process should be explored; whether different ways induced approach motivation have a difference in the brain mechanism should be cleared.

Key words: approach motivation, RLFA, EEG, anger, body posture