Research on initial stress appraisal process by event-related potentials

In the last years there has been a growing interest in the appraisal as a determinat process of anxiety and stress. Appraisal seems to be an automatic and preattentive process which does not require conscious processing of the stimulus. It has been claimed that functions mediated by the amygdala are likely to be the neural instantiation of the appraisal, and amigdala receives inputs from the thalamus and the cortex; the former reach quickly, while the latter provide detailed stimulus information, but reach the amigdala more slowly. Brain Event-related Potencials (ERPs) can be a good indexes of the initial and quick processing of potential stresors. Recently, several experiments on emotion appraisal has been conducted by ERPs. This method allows to diferentiate betwenn emotional and cognitive processes and, also, the ERPs hemispheric asymmetries are related to stimulus appraisal valence