Effectiveness of acute aerobic exercise in regulating emotions in individuals with test anxiety.

High levels of test anxiety can cause negative emotional interference and have adverse effects in multiple aspects. It is currently unclear whether acute aerobic exercise can effectively reduce a series of negative emotions triggered by test anxiety. This study investigates the impact of 30 min of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on the subjective emotional responses and frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) in individuals with high test anxiety. Forty-four college students with high test anxiety were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise group and a control group. Each group underwent two tests, involving subjective scale measurements and resting-state EEG recordings, with a seven-day interval between tests. Results showed that after 30 min of moderate-intensity acute aerobic exercise, the intervention group had significantly reduced scores in subjective negative emotional experiences, and FAA indicators significantly increased. The study suggests that acute aerobic exercise can enhance the emotional regulation ability of college students with high test anxiety and reduce their negative emotions.

Frontal alpha asymmetry dynamics: A window into active self-regulatory processes.

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry (FAA) has been studied since the late 1970s as a neural correlate of emotion regulation and motivational processes. FAA is often viewed through a dispositional lens reflecting individual differences in positive or negative emotionality and biases toward approach or avoidance motivational processes. However, FAA also shifts in response to context-specific conditions that elicit approach or avoidance responses, indicating FAA reflects active, ongoing self-regulatory processes. Moreover, FAA changes over time, and how it changes over time is affected by context, experience, and development. We propose FAA evolves over four different time scales including the (1) second-to-second, (2) laboratory task, (3) intervention or intensive learning experience, and (4) developmental time scales. We present evidence showing FAA evolves over each of these time scales and highlight influences of individual differences and the developmental context on how FAA changes over time. We emphasize the insights gained by studying change in FAA over each time scale. We concluded with recommendations about future directions and speculate about the nested, bidirectional nature of the four timescales.

Frontal alpha asymmetry predicts subsequent social decision-making: A dynamic multilevel, neural, and developmental perspective.

Social motivation, the human desire to engage with others, is likely to underlie higher levels of social cognition and the formation of interpersonal relationships. Yet, this topic has been understudied in adolescents despite the critical developmental and maturational changes that occur during this period and the relevance of social motivation to clinical and neurodevelopmental disorders. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and an implicit-association paradigm (Choose-A-Movie Task; Dubey et al., 2015), we examined how brain responses underlying socially motivated decisions informed future decisions in 54 youth (aged 10-14 years) and 50 young adults (aged 18-33 years). As the first study to use this task during EEG recording, we implemented time-frequency analyses and a trial-by-trial dynamic statistical approach. Results suggested that both age groups preferred low-effort choices and increasingly preferred nonsocial choices over time. P3 amplitude also increased over time and was sensitive to effortful decisions, particularly for adults, but not social content. Both groups showed larger leftward frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) during nonsocial feedback, and FAA predicted future decisions differently for adults than youth. The current study highlights FAA and trial-by-trial analyses as useful tools in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying socially motivated decisions, which differ across development, time, and individuals.

Frontal EEG alpha asymmetry predicts foreign language anxiety while speaking a foreign language.

Engaging in dialog requires interlocutors to coordinate sending and receiving linguistic signals to build a discourse based upon interpretations and perceptions interconnected with a range of emotions. Conversing in a foreign language may induce emotions such as anxiety which influence the quality communication. The neural processes underpinning these interactions are crucial to understanding foreign language anxiety (FLA). Electroencephalography (EEG) studies reveal that anxiety is often displayed via hemispheric frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). To examine the neural mechanisms underlying FLA, we collected self-reported data on the listening and speaking sections of the Second language skill specific anxiety scale (L2AS) over behavioral, cognitive, and somatic domains and recorded EEG signals during participation in word chain turn-taking activities in first (L1, Chinese) and second (L2, English) languages. Regression analysis showed FAA for the L2 condition was a significant predictor primarily of the behavioral and somatic domains on the L2AS speaking section. The results are discussed along with implications for improving communication during L2 interactions.

Sex moderates the effect of anhedonia on parietal alpha asymmetry.

Anhedonia, a transdiagnostic symptom present in many neuropsychiatric disorders, differs in males and females. Parietal EEG alpha asymmetry is associated with reduced arousal and low positive emotionality, and is, therefore, a promising neurophysiologic biomarker of anhedonia. To date, however, no prior studies have determined whether this measure captures sex differences in anhedonic expression. This preliminary study (N = 36) investigated whether anhedonia severity is associated with EEG resting-state parietal alpha asymmetry in adults and whether sex moderates this relationship. Results showed that there was a significant moderating effect of sex such that, only for females, higher levels of anhedonia were associated with increased parietal alpha asymmetry. These findings suggest that parietal alpha asymmetry is a promising biomarker of anhedonia severity in female adults and reinforces the need to account for sex differences in future research.

The impact of subclinical psychotic symptoms on delay and effort discounting: Insights from behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological methods.

BACKGROUND: The ability to value rewards is crucial for adaptive behavior and is influenced by the time and effort required to obtain them. Impairments in these computations have been observed in patients with schizophrenia and may be present in individuals with subclinical psychotic symptoms (PS). METHODS: In this study, we employed delay and effort-discounting tasks with food rewards in thirty-nine participants divided into high and low levels of PS. We investigated the underlying mechanisms of effort-discounting through computational modelling of dopamine prefrontal and subcortical circuits and the electrophysiological biomarker of both delay and effort-discounting alterations through resting-state frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). RESULTS: Results revealed greater delay discounting in the High PS group compared to the Low PS group but no differences in the effort discounting task. However, in this task, the same levels of estimated dopamine release were associated with a lower willingness to exert effort for high-calorie food rewards in High PS participants compared to Low PS participants. Although there were no significant differences in FAA between the High PS and Low PS groups, FAA was significantly associated with the severity of participants' negative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the dysfunction in temporal and effort cost computations, seen in patients with schizophrenia, may be present in individuals with subclinical PS. These findings provide valuable insight into the early vulnerability markers (behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological) for psychosis, which may aid in the development of preventive interventions. These findings are preliminary and warrant further investigation.

Robots as Mental Health Coaches: A Study of Emotional Responses to Technology-Assisted Stress Management Tasks Using Physiological Signals.

The current study investigated the effectiveness of social robots in facilitating stress management interventions for university students by evaluating their physiological responses. We collected electroencephalogram (EEG) brain activity and Galvanic Skin Responses (GSRs) together with self-reported questionnaires from two groups of students who practiced a deep breathing exercise either with a social robot or a laptop. From GSR signals, we obtained the change in participants' arousal level throughout the intervention, and from the EEG signals, we extracted the change in their emotional valence using the neurometric of Frontal Alpha Asymmetry (FAA). While subjective perceptions of stress and user experience did not differ significantly between the two groups, the physiological signals revealed differences in their emotional responses as evaluated by the arousal-valence model. The Laptop group tended to show a decrease in arousal level which, in some cases, was accompanied by negative valence indicative of boredom or lack of interest. On the other hand, the Robot group displayed two patterns; some demonstrated a decrease in arousal with positive valence indicative of calmness and relaxation, and others showed an increase in arousal together with positive valence interpreted as excitement. These findings provide interesting insights into the impact of social robots as mental well-being coaches on students' emotions particularly in the presence of the novelty effect. Additionally, they provide evidence for the efficacy of physiological signals as an objective and reliable measure of user experience in HRI settings.

The relationship between frontal alpha asymmetry and behavioral and brain activity indices of reactive inhibitory control.

Reactive inhibitory control plays an important role in phenotype of different diseases/different phases of a disease. One candidate electrophysiological marker of inhibitory control is frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). FAA reflects the relative difference in contralateral frontal brain activity. However, the relationship between FAA and potential behavioral/brain activity indices of reactive inhibitory control is not yet clear. We assessed the relationship between resting-state FAA and indicators of reactive inhibitory control. Additionally, we investigated the effect of modulation of FAA via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We implemented a randomized sham-controlled design with 65 healthy humans (Mage = 23.93, SDage = 6.08; 46 female). Before and after 2-mA anodal tDCS of the right frontal site (with the cathode at the contralateral site) for 20 min, we collected EEG data and reactive inhibitory performance in neutral and food-reward conditions, using the stop signal task (SST). There was no support for the effect of tDCS on FAA or any indices of reactive inhibitory control. Our correlation analysis revealed an association between inhibitory brain activity in the food-reward condition and (pre-tDCS) asymmetry. Higher right relative to left frontal brain activity was correlated with reduced early-onset inhibitory activity and, in contrast, linked with higher late-onset inhibitory control in the food-reward condition. Similarly, event-related potential analyses showed reduced early-onset and enhanced late-onset inhibitory brain activity over time, particularly in the food-reward condition. These results suggest that there can be a dissociation regarding the lateralization of frontal brain activity and early- and late-onset inhibitory brain activity.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This research reveals dissociation between baseline frontal alpha asymmetry and the timing of reactive inhibitory brain activities in food-reward contexts. Whereas inhibitory control performance decreases over time in a stop signal task, electrophysiological indices show reduced early- and heightened late-onset inhibitory brain activity, especially in the reward condition. Additionally, greater right frontal activity correlates with reduced early-onset and increased late-onset inhibitory brain activity.

Multimodal and hemispheric graph-theoretical brain network predictors of learning efficacy for frontal alpha asymmetry neurofeedback.

EEG neurofeedback using frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) has been widely used for emotion regulation, but its effectiveness is controversial. Studies indicated that individual differences in neurofeedback training can be traced to neuroanatomical and neurofunctional features. However, they only focused on regional brain structure or function and overlooked possible neural correlates of the brain network. Besides, no neuroimaging predictors for FAA neurofeedback protocol have been reported so far. We designed a single-blind pseudo-controlled FAA neurofeedback experiment and collected multimodal neuroimaging data from healthy participants before training. We assessed the learning performance for evoked EEG modulations during training (L1) and at rest (L2), and investigated performance-related predictors based on a combined analysis of multimodal brain networks and graph-theoretical features. The main findings of this study are described below. First, both real and sham groups could increase their FAA during training, but only the real group showed a significant increase in FAA at rest. Second, the predictors during training blocks and at rests were different: L1 was correlated with the graph-theoretical metrics (clustering coefficient and local efficiency) of the right hemispheric gray matter and functional networks, while L2 was correlated with the graph-theoretical metrics (local and global efficiency) of the whole-brain and left the hemispheric functional network. Therefore, the individual differences in FAA neurofeedback learning could be explained by individual variations in structural/functional architecture, and the correlated graph-theoretical metrics of learning performance indices showed different laterality of hemispheric networks. These results provided insight into the neural correlates of inter-individual differences in neurofeedback learning. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-023-09939-x.

The Effect of Long-Term Learning of BaduanJin on Emotion Regulation: Evidence from Resting-State Frontal EEG Asymmetry.

Purpose: Baduanjin, as a Chinese traditional fitness exercise, can help people regulate emotions and promote their physical and psychological health. However, the underlying neural mechanisms have not been thoroughly explored. This study aimed to examine the effects of differences in the level of Baduanjin learning on individuals' brain and psychological response related to emotion regulation. Methods: Twenty-two participants with long-term Baduanjin learning (for more than one year), and 21 participants with short-term Baduanjin learning (for approximately three months) were recruited. All participants were asked to do a complete 12-minute set of Baduanjin. Before and after doing Baduanjin, their resting-state EEG signals were collected, besides, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Profile of Mood States-Short Form (POMS-SF) were used to assess participants' emotion regulation strategies and abilities. Results: The results of psychological measurement indicated that participants in the long-term group were more likely to use cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy compared to participants in the short-term group (p<0.05). Moreover, the analysis of the frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) showed that participants in the long-term group rather than the short-term group exhibited significant left lateralization after doing Baduanjin (p<0.05). Conclusion: The findings provide preliminary evidence for the neural mechanism underlying how long-term Baduanjin learning promotes individuals' emotion regulation indexed by FAA. The study provides a new paradigm for research on how Baduanjin affects emotional regulation.

Greater weekly physical activity linked to left resting frontal alpha asymmetry in women: A study on gender differences in highly active young adults.

Physical activity, beneficial for physical and psychological health, may facilitate affective mechanisms of positive emotion and approach-motivation. Greater resting frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), an index of greater relative left than right frontal cortical activity, is a neural correlate of affective mechanisms possibly associated with active lifestyles. This study sought to amplify limited literature on the relationship between physical (in)activity, FAA, and gender differences. College students (n = 70) self-reported physical activity (Total PA) and sedentary activity (Total Sitting) via the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), followed by a resting electroencephalography session to record FAA. A Total PA × gender interaction (ß = 0.462, t = 3.163, p = 0.002) identified a positive relationship between Total PA and FAA in women (ß = 0.434, t = 2.221, p = 0.030) and a negative relationship for men (ß = -0.338, t = -2.300, p = 0.025). Total Sitting was positively linked to FAA (ß = 0.288, t = 2.228, p = 0.029; no gender effect). Results suggest affective mechanisms reflected by FAA (e.g., positive emotion, approach-motivation) are associated with physical activity for women, indicating a possible mechanism of the psychological benefits linked with physically active lifestyles. A positive relationship between sedentary behavior and greater left FAA may also reflect motivated mechanisms of behavior that aid in minimizing energy expenditure, particularly within the context of our highly active sample.

Emotion-Induced Frontal Alpha Asymmetry as a Candidate Predictor of Relapse After Discontinuation of Antidepressant Medication.

BACKGROUND: One in 3 patients relapse after antidepressant discontinuation. Thus, the prevention of relapse after achieving remission is an important component in the long-term management of major depressive disorder. However, no clinical or other predictors are established. Frontal reactivity to sad mood as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging has been reported to relate to relapse independently of antidepressant discontinuation and is an interesting candidate predictor. METHODS: Patients (n = 56) who had remitted from a depressive episode while taking antidepressants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) recording during a sad mood induction procedure prior to gradually discontinuing their medication. Relapse was assessed over a 6-month follow-up period. Thirty five healthy control participants were also tested. Current source density of the EEG power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) was extracted and alpha asymmetry was computed by comparing the power across 2 hemispheres at frontal electrodes (F5 and F6). RESULTS: Sad mood induction was robust across all groups. Reactivity of alpha asymmetry to sad mood did not distinguish healthy control participants from patients with remitted major depressive disorder on medication. However, the 14 (25%) patients who relapsed during the follow-up period after discontinuing medication showed significantly reduced reactivity in alpha asymmetry compared with patients who remained well. This EEG signal provided predictive power (69% out-of-sample balanced accuracy and a positive predictive value of 0.75). CONCLUSIONS: A simple EEG-based measure of emotional reactivity may have potential to contribute to clinical prediction models of antidepressant discontinuation. Given the very small sample size, this finding must be interpreted with caution and requires replication in a larger study.

The role of the target language culture on Arabic learners' fondness for Arabic poetry.

As an important carrier of culture, poetry plays a significant role in deepening language learners' understanding of the target language culture as well as enhancing their language skills; however, the effect of the target language culture on language learners' enjoyment of poetry remains unclear. The study served as an attempt to shed light on the point of whether the target language culture has different effects on high- and low-level Chinese Arabic learners' fondness for Arabic poetry with the use of pictures related to Arabic culture and those not related to Arabic culture. In the current study, 40 Arabic learners (20 high-level and 20 low-level) scored the Arabic poem line based on their fondness for it after viewing two kinds of picture with electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Frontal alpha asymmetry index as a correlate of approach and avoidance related motivation measured by EEG power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) was calculated for examining whether the behavioral results of Arabic learners' fondness for poetry are in line with the results of changes in the related EEG components. Behavioral results illustrated that low-level subjects showed significantly less liking for Arabic poetry after viewing pictures related to Arabic culture compared to those not related to Arabic culture. The high-level subjects did not show a significant difference in the level of liking for Arabic poetry between the two cases. FAA results demonstrated that low-level subjects presented a significant avoidance-related responses to Arabic poetry after viewing pictures related to Arabic culture in comparison to viewing pictures not related to Arabic culture; while the FAA values did not differ significantly between the two cases in high-level subjects, which is in line with behavioral results. The findings of this research can benefit teachers in motivating students to learn poetry in foreign language curriculum and also contribute to the literature on the effect of target language culture on language learners' enjoyment of poetry.

Frontal alpha asymmetry is associated with chronic stress and depression, but not with somatoform disorders.

Cardinal characteristics of somatoform disorders (SFDs) are worry of illness, and impaired affective processing. We used relative frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), a method to measure functional lateralization of affective processing, to investigate psychobiological correlates of SFDs. With alpha activity being inversely related to cortical network activity, relative FAA refers to alpha activity on the right frontal lobe minus alpha activity on the left frontal lobe. Less relative left frontal activity, reflected by negative FAA scores, is associated with lower positive and greater negative affectivity, such as observed in depression. Due to its negative affective component (illness anxiety), we expected to find less relative left frontal activity pattern in SFDs, and positive associations with self-reported chronic stress and depression symptoms. We recorded resting-state EEG activity with 64 electrodes, placed in a 10-10 system in 26 patients with a primary SFD, 23 patients with a major depressive disorder and 25 healthy control participants. The groups did not differ in FAA. Nevertheless, across all participants, less relative left frontal activity was associated with chronic stress and depression symptoms. We concluded that FAA may not serve as an indicator of SFDs. As the relationship of FAA and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by chronic stress, future studies have to clarify whether the association between FAA and chronic stress may represent a shared underlying factor for the manifestation of mental health complaints, such as depression.

The association of maternal-infant interactive behavior, dyadic frontal alpha asymmetry, and maternal anxiety in a smartphone-adapted still face paradigm.

Mother-infant interactions form a strong basis for emotion regulation development in infants. These interactions can be affected by various factors, including maternal postnatal anxiety. Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning allows for simultaneous assessment of mother-infant brain-to-behavior association during stressful events, such as the still-face paradigm (SFP). This study aimed at investigating dyadic interactive behavior and brain-to-behavior association across SFP and identifying neural correlates of mother-infant interactions in the context of maternal postnatal anxiety. We measured frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), a physiological correlate of emotion regulation and a potential marker of risk for psychopathology. To emulate real-life interactions, EEG and behavioral data were collected from 38 mother-infant dyads during a smartphone-adapted dual-SFP. Although the behavioral data showed a clear still-face effect for the smartphone-adapted SFP, this was not reflected in the infant or maternal FAA. Brain-to-behavior data showed higher infant negative affect being associated with more infant leftward FAA during the still-face episodes. Finally, mothers with higher postnatal anxiety showed more right FAA during the first still-face episode, suggesting negative affectivity and a need to withdraw from the situation. Our results form a baseline for further research assessing the effects of maternal postnatal anxiety on infants' FAA and dyadic interactive behavior.

Exploring EEG resting state as a function of boredom proneness in pre-adolescents and adolescents.

Boredom is a prominent experience commonly reported in school settings and associated with poor academic achievement. Little is known, however, about the age-related trajectory of boredom. Here we examined self-reported ratings of boredom in a cross-sectional sample of 8 to 15-year olds (n = 185) as a function of resting state EEG. Results indicated that reports of boredom in school rose as a function of age. Resting state EEG showed a decrease in theta power with age perhaps reflective of increased control. While no effects were evident in beta and alpha bands, we did observe an interaction between boredom and age for frontal asymmetry such that for those higher in boredom, the asymmetry increased with age. Finally, for theta to beta ratios there were main effects of age (i.e., a decrease in theta/beta ratio with age) and boredom such that those higher in boredom had higher theta/beta ratios over frontal and central brain areas. The results are discussed in the context of prior work on school-related boredom and provide several important avenues for further research.

Relationship among physical activity,mild depressive symptoms and frontal alpha power asymmetry in college students / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To investigate the correlation among physical activity,mild depressive symptoms and frontal alpha power asymmetry in college students.Methods:Seventy college students with mild depressive symp-toms who conformed to the standard of the Self-Rating Scale for Depression(SDS)of 53-62 and 70 normal col-lege students were recruited.The frontal alpha power was measured under quiet and closed-eye state,and the total physical activity(PA)was assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire.Results:The college students with mild depressive symptoms had lower Total PA scores,right frontal alpha power and frontal alpha a-symmetry(FAA)than the normal controls(P＜0.001).In college students with mild depressive symptoms,the to-tal PA scores(r=-0.29,P＜0.05)and FAA(r=-0.41,P＜0.001)were negatively correlated with SDS scores,and the total PA scores were positively correlated with FAA(r=0.34,P＜0.01).Conclusion:The college students with mild depressive symptoms may have reduced physical activity and asymmetric right lateralization of frontal alpha power.There is a correlation among depressive symptoms,physical activity and frontal alpha power a-symmetry in college students with mild depressive symptoms.

Learning to be inventive in the face of statistics: A positive reappraisal intervention for statistics anxiety.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The burden of statistics anxiety on students calls for effective interventions. This study investigated whether a cognitive reappraisal training designed to stimulate the generation of positive re-interpretations may yield behavioral changes in anxiety measures and changes in cerebral activation patterns reflecting the activation of approach/avoidance motivational tendencies (frontal EEG alpha asymmetry response). METHODS: Three groups of female psychology students (n = 45) with statistics anxiety were tested. Two groups received a guided, two-week reappraisal training with either statistics-anxiety or general anxiety situations; the control group received no intervention. RESULTS: Both training groups significantly increased their amount of positive re-interpretations from pre-to post-test compared to the control group. Increased habitual use of reappraisal in statistics situations and significant EEG changes reflecting more approach-oriented coping with anxiety occurred in the statistics-anxiety training group only. No changes in statistics anxiety and statistics attitudes were observed, suggesting that the training effects, though corroborated through neurophysiological changes, did not sufficiently translate to improving students' deep-rooted anxiety. LIMITATIONS: Effects, though robust and following the same pattern, were observed in a small sample. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings delineate a promising expandable approach for helping students' cope with statistics anxiety in a healthier way.

Analysis of the Correlation between Frontal Alpha Asymmetry of Electroencephalography and Short-Term Subjective Well-Being Changes.

Subjective well-being (SWB) describes how well people experience and evaluate their current condition. Previous studies with electroencephalography (EEG) have shown that SWB can be related to frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). While those studies only considered a single SWB score for each experimental session, our goal is to investigate such a correlation for individuals with a possibly different SWB every 60 or 30 s. Therefore, we conducted two experiments with 30 participants each. We used different temperature and humidity settings and asked the participants to periodically rate their SWB. We computed the FAA from EEG over different time intervals and associated the given SWB, leading to pairs of (FAA, SWB) values. After correcting the imbalance in the data with the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE), we performed a linear regression and found a positive linear correlation between FAA and SWB. We also studied the best time interval sizes for determining FAA around each SWB score. We found that using an interval of 10 s before recording the SWB score yields the best results.

Forgive or complain: Interpersonal distance modulates reactive attitudes and neural responses toward wrongdoers.

While the effect of interpersonal distance on forgiveness has been investigated over the past few years, it remains unclear whether this facilitating effect holds even when measured implicitly. Meanwhile, though cognitive control and the corresponding prefrontal cortex play a prominent role in forgiveness processing, the neural mechanism underlying forgiveness toward varied wrongdoers is largely unexplored. Here, forty-two participants initially underwent noise offense either from their friend or stranger, followed by a word identification test to examine their implicit attitude, during which they were presented with word-name combinations and required to categorize forgive- or complain-label words while ignoring the names of their friends or strangers below. A shorter reaction time reflects more congruence with one's implicit attitude. Electroencephalogram was recorded during the word identification test. Behaviorally, while individuals reacted faster to forgive-friend relative to complain-friend pairings, no such reaction bias was found for the stranger-wrongdoer, which suggests that individuals were more inclined to forgive someone close. Regarding the EEG/ERP results, forgive-friend elicited lower alpha oscillation and more negative frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) value than complain-friend combinations, suggesting increased and dominant activity in the right prefrontal network during forgiveness toward friends. Whereas complain- relative to forgive-stranger combinations elicited larger P3 amplitudes, suggesting a neural encoding bias to information associated with complaints about stranger-wrongdoer. These multimodal findings provide evidence for the benefits of closeness in forgiveness and shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying forgiveness toward different types of wrongdoers.