Different activation patterns through pictures with positive or negative content. Preliminary results of an fMRI-study

NemoImage

13, Number

6, 2001,

Part 2 of 2 Parts ID

E b[@

EMOTION

& COGNITION

Different activation patterns through pictures with positive or negative content. Preliminary results of an fMRI-study. Christian

H. Roeder*, Joerg Meinhardtt,

Matthias DobmeierS, Juergen L. Mueller+

*Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University,

and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany

TDepartment

of Psychology,

University

of Regensburg,

Germany

*Department

of Psychiatriy,

University

of Regensburg,

Germany

Introduction: Emotions ate a fundamental part of human life. Every human being experiences emotions in nearly most time of his life. What makes emotions difficult in research as well as in normal life is that emotions besides its psychophysiological occurrences are a purely subjective state. Most psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders are accompanied by disturbances of emotions, in several instances these disturbances are the core symptom, for example in depressive disorders. Modem neuroimaging methods allow to look for areas which are involved in processing stimuli loaden with emotional content. Methods: In a pilot study, we stimulated 8 male, right-handed healthy controls with negative, neutral and positive pictures of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS)[l]. Previous to this study, the pictures were rated by a sample of german students for standardisation. Pictures were stored on a PC and were presented using a video-beamer on a screen which could be seen by a mirror fixed at the head coil of the MRI. Using a block design, in a first run a series with four neutral pictures alternate with a series of 5 positive pictures, each picture was presented for 3 seconds. The run consists of four blocks of neutral and four blocks of positive pictures. In a second run positive pictures were substituted by negative pictures. The same schedule was repeated. When scanning was finished, the participants rated the presented pictures using the self-assessment-manikin (SAM). Data acquisition was done with a 1.5 Tesla MRI (Siemens Symphony). A lxlxlmm MPrage for anatomical localiaation was acquired. 100 Echo-Planar-Images (20 slices each) were measured while the pictures were presented. Data analysing was done with BrainVoyager 4.2. Results: The presentation of positive and negative pictures induced significant activation of cortical and subcortical areas. In both conditions. the primary visual cortex and left orbitofrontal cortex were activated. In the run with positive pictures left amygdala and right insular region were activated while in the run with negative pictures, right amygdala and left insular region were activated. These results are in accordance with previous results from electrophysiological, lesion and neuroimaging studies[2-51, which reported about lateralisation of emotional processing and activation of the regions mentioned aboved. Further evaluation of our data will cover the influence of subjective rating of the pictures content concerning emotional valance and arousal on activation patterns. References 1. Lang PJ, Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN (2001) International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Instruction manual and affective ratings. 2. Davidson RJ, Putnam KM, Larson CL (2000) Dysfunction in the neural circuitry of emotion regulation--a possible prelude to violence. Science 289: 591-594 3. Hariri AR, Bookheimer SY, Mazziotta JC (2000) Modulating emotional responses: effects of a neocortical network on the limbic system. Neuroreport. 11: 43-48 4. Teasdale JD, Howard RJ, Cox SG, Ha Y, Brammer MJ, Williams SC, Checkley SA (1999) Functional MRI study of the cognitive generation of affect. Am.J.Psychiatry 156: 209-215 5. Whalen PJ, Rauch SL, Etcoff NL, McInerney SC, Lee MB, Jenike MA (1998) Masked presentations of emotional facial expressions modulate amygdala activity without explicit knowledge. J.Neurosci. 18: 41 l-41 8

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