Sex differences in brain activation patterns during processing of positively and negatively valenced emotional words

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that men and women process emotional stimuli differently. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate gender differences in regional cerebral activity during the perception of positive or negative emotions. METHOD: The experiment comprised two emotional conditions (positively/negatively valenced words) during which fMRI data were acquired. RESULTS: Thirty-eight healthy volunteers (19 males, 19 females) were investigated. A direct comparison of brain activation between men and women revealed differential activation in the right putamen, the right superior temporal gyrus, and the left supramarginal gyrus during processing of positively valenced words versus non-words for women versus men. By contrast, during processing of negatively valenced words versus non-words, relatively greater activation was seen in the left perirhinal cortex and hippocampus for women versus men, and in the right supramarginal gyrus for men versus women. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest gender-related neural responses to emotional stimuli and could contribute to the understanding of mechanisms underlying the gender disparity of neuropsychiatric diseases such as mood disorders.     

A multi-modal approach to the study of attachment-related distress

The present study aimed at providing a comprehensive analysis of individual differences in the regulation of attachment distress as measured through different components of the emotional response, including neuroendocrine reactions, subjectively experienced affect, and proximity seeking behaviour. Emotional responses were measured before, during, and after the induction of attachment distress in a sample of couples. Analyses using multi-level modelling revealed that, in both men and women, attachment anxiety was related to physiological (i.e., cortisol) and subjective emotional distress responses, whereas attachment avoidance most consistently predicted subjective and behavioural responses to distress. In addition to one's own attachment style, partner's attachment style was also found to modulate emotional and behavioural responses to relational stress, in both couple members. Attachment style was also found to moderate the interrelations between emotional indices, revealing interesting information on the regulatory strategies underlying attachment anxiety and avoidance.     

性相关视觉刺激对右脑Broca区不对称性兴奋的功能核磁共振研究

目的:了解与视觉性刺激相关的脑功能定位。方法:用张贴广告的形式征集到13例正常女性,通过功能核磁共振比较其观看普通影片和含有性内容图片时的大脑兴奋差异,确定差异有统计学意义的脑区。结果:与中性图片相比,涉性图片激发了广泛的大脑区域,包括侧枕叶皮质、中央后回、顶上小叶、枕叶梭状回、海马等。大部分脑区的兴奋都是左右半球对称的,只有额下回岛盖部(Z=3.64,P0.0001)和三角部(Z=3.42,P=0.003)为右脑优势。讨论:本文通过功能核磁共振方法发现,当女性受试在被呈示以与性相关的图片时,大脑右半球额下回岛盖部和三角部有显著的不对称兴奋。该脑区可能对性心理调控有重要意义。     

大学生成人依恋与主观幸福感的关系

目的探讨大学生成人依恋与主观幸福感的关系。方法采用亲密关系体验量表(ECR)和总体幸福感量表(GWB)对465名大学生进行问卷调查。结果①大学生依恋类型分布情况:惧怕型>专注型>安全型>淡漠型;②4种依恋类型个体的幸福感得分有显著差异(F=28.016,P=0.000);③依恋回避与依恋焦虑与主观幸福感显著负相关(r=-0.382,-0.331;P<0.01);④依恋焦虑和依恋回避能显著预测主观幸福感(R2=0.235,P=0.000)。结论大学生安全依恋个体的幸福感高于非安全依恋个体。依恋焦虑和依恋回避与主观幸福感相关,并对主观幸福感有预测作用。     

Self-reported attachment style,trauma exposure and dissociative symptoms among adolescents

The aim of this study was to analyze whether self-reported attachment style (measuring avoidance and anxiety) among adolescents was associated with dissociative symptoms, in addition to self-reported potentially traumatic experiences. A group consisting of 462 adolescents completed three self-assessment questionnaires: Linkoping Youth Life Experience Scale (LYLES), Experiences in Close Relationships, modified version (ECR) and Dissociation Questionnaire Sweden (Dis-Q-Sweden). Self-reported attachment style had a stronger association with dissociative symptoms than self reported traumas. It was also found that scores on a dissociation questionnaire correlated strongly with scores on self-reported attachment style in adolescence. Discussion concerns reasons why self-reported attachment style is an important factor that may influence dissociative symptoms during adolescence.     

Neural Changes Associated with Emotion Processing in Children Experiencing Peer Rejection: A Functional MRI Study

This study was performed to investigate differences between children who did and did not experience peer rejection in psychological state through surveys and in emotion processing during an interpersonal stress challenge task to reflect naturalistic interpersonal face-to-face relationships. A total of 20 right-handed children, 10 to 12 yr of age, completed self-rating questionnaires inquiring about peer rejection in school, depression, and anxiety. They then underwent an interpersonal stress challenge task simulating conditions of emotional stress, in reaction to positive, negative and neutral facial expression stimuli, using interpersonal feedbacks, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) for an analysis of neural correlates during the task. Ten were the peer-rejection group, whereas the remainder were the control group. Based on the behavioral results, the peer-rejection group exhibited elevated levels of depression, state anxiety, trait anxiety and social anxiety as compared to the control group. The FMRI results revealed that the peer-rejection group exhibited greater and remarkably more extensive activation of brain regions encompassing the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to negative feedback stimuli of emotional faces. The different brain reactivities characterizing emotion processing during interpersonal relationships may be present between children who do and do not experience peer rejection.

Graphical Abstract

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Brain Reactivity and Selective Attention to Sleep-Related Words in Patients With Chronic Insomnia

Objective/Background: Sleep-related attentional bias has been suggested to represent an important factor for the maintenance of chronic insomnia. However, little is known about potentially underlying psychological mechanisms such as threat or craving. As these are associated with distinguishable brain activation patterns, we performed a functional neuroimaging study. Participants/Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate brain reactivity to sleep-related words in 20 patients with primary insomnia according to DSM-IV criteria and 35 good sleeper controls according to Research Diagnostic Criteria. In addition, an emotional Stroop task was performed in all participants outside the scanner to investigate sleep-related attentional bias. Results: Contrary to the hypotheses, patients with chronic insomnia did not differ from good sleeper controls in terms of threat- or craving-related brain reactivity to sleep-related words. In addition, the emotional Stroop task did not reveal any significant group difference in sleep-related attentional bias. Exploratory analyses did not show any significant correlations between brain reactivity/selective attention to sleep-related words and questionnaire scores/PSG parameters. Conclusions: The results from the present study call into question that attentional bias to sleep-related stimuli is a core feature of chronic insomnia. Future studies may use pictorial stimuli and larger sample sizes for investigating sleep-related information processing in insomnia.     

Laterality effect on emotional faces processing: ALE meta-analysis of evidence

Recognizing emotion from facial expressions draws on diverse psychological processes implemented in a large array of neural structures. Two major theories of cerebral lateralization of emotional perception have been proposed: (i) the Right-Hemisphere Hypothesis (RHH) and (ii) the Valence-Specific Hypothesis (VSH). To test these lateralization models we conducted a large voxel-based meta-analysis of current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies employing emotional faces paradigms in healthy volunteers. Two independent researchers conducted separate comprehensive PUBMED (1990–May 2008) searches to find all functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using a variant of the emotional faces paradigm in healthy subjects. Out of the 551 originally identified studies, 105 studies met inclusion criteria. The overall database consisted of 1785 brain coordinates which yield an overall sample of 1600 healthy subjects. We found no support for the hypothesis of overall right-lateralization of emotional processing. Conversely, across all emotional conditions the parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, precuneus, inferior and middle occipital gyrus, posterior cingulated, middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal and superior frontal gyri were activated bilaterally (p = 0.001). There was a valence-specific lateralization of brain response during negative emotions processing in the left amygdala (p = 0.001). Significant interactions between the approach and avoidance dimensions and prefrontal response were observed (p = 0.001).     

Emotional arousal and activation of the visual cortex: An fMRI analysis

Functional activity in the visual cortex was assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging technology while participants viewed a series of pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant pictures. Coronal images at four different locations in the occipital cortex were acquired during each of eight 12-s picture presentation periods (on) and 12-s interpicture interval (off). The extent of functional activation was larger in the right than the left hemisphere and larger in the occipital than in the occipitoparietal regions during processing of all picture contents compared with the interpicture intervals. More importantly, functional activity was significantly greater in all sampled brain regions when processing emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) pictures than when processing neutral stimuli. In Experiment 2, a hypothesis that these differences were an artifact of differential eye movements was ruled out. Whereas both emotional and neutral pictures produced activity centered on the calcarine fissure (Area 17), only emotional pictures also produced sizable clusters bilaterally in the occipital gyrus, in the right fusiform gyrus, and in the right inferior and superior parietal lobules.     

An fMRI study of personality influences on brain reactivity to emotional stimuli

Functional imaging studies have examined which brain regions respond to emotional stimuli, but they have not determined how stable personality traits moderate such brain activation. Two personality traits, extraversion and neuroticism, are strongly associated with emotional experience and may thus moderate brain reactivity to emotional stimuli. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly test whether individual differences in brain reactivity to emotional stimuli are correlated with extraversion and neuroticism in healthy women. Extraversion was correlated with brain reactivity to positive stimuli in localized brain regions, and neuroticism was correlated with brain reactivity to negative stimuli in localized brain regions. This study provides direct evidence that personality is associated with brain reactivity to emotional stimuli and identifies both common and distinct brain regions where such modulation takes place.     

Amygdala hyperactivation and prefrontal hypoactivation in subjects with cognitive vulnerability to depression

The hopelessness theory (HT) of depression is a diathesis-stress theory which construes cognitive vulnerability (CV) to depression. Neuroimaging studies examining depression have implicated the amygdala as an important potential locus of dysfunction in the processing of salient threatening stimuli. However, little is known about neural activation in the brain of subjects with CV to depression. Medication-free major depressive disorder (MDD) subjects (N=29), never depressed subjects with CV (N=26), and demographically matched never depressed healthy control (HC) subjects (N=31) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotional matching task. The MDD subjects showed elevated left amygdala responses and reduced left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activation levels relative to HC subjects. Similarly, CV subjects had greater activity in the amygdala bilaterally and lesser activation in the dlPFC bilaterally, relative to HC subjects. The present findings raise the possibility that cognitive vulnerability to depression might be characterized by hypoactivation of the prefrontal cortex and hyperactivation of the amygdala in response to emotional stimuli; our observations might provide a potential interpretation to explain the abnormalities in neural networks mediating cognitive modulation of emotions in individuals with cognitive vulnerability to depression.     

师范大学生成人依恋与父母教养方式关系的研究

目的 了解师范大学生的依恋状况及其与父母教养方式的关系.方法 运用关系问卷(RQ)、亲密关系经历量表(ECR)和父母教养方式问卷(EMBU)对重庆市3所师范院校随机抽取500名在校师范专业的大学生进行调查.结果 ①师范大学生依恋类型在性别上存在显著差异(x2=5.364,P=0.016),其中不安全依恋类型女生所占的比...     

Brain activity during emotion perception: the role of attachment representation

To examine emotional face processing in mothers of different attachment representations, event-related potentials were recorded from 16 mothers during presentation of infant emotion faces with positive, negative or neutral emotional expressions within a three-stimulus oddball paradigm, and frontal asymmetries were assessed. Insecure mothers, as compared to secure ones, showed a more pronounced negativity in the face-sensitive N170 component and a smaller N200 amplitude. Regarding the P300 component, secure mothers showed a stronger response to face stimuli than insecure mothers. No differences were found for frontal asymmetry scores. The results indicate that attachment differences may be related to neuropsychological functioning.     

高中生依恋类型与独处行为的关系

目的:探讨高中生依恋类型与独处行为之间的关系。方法 :采用《成人亲密关系经历量表》和《独处行为量表》对442名高中学生进行测量。结果:依恋回避与孤僻和积极独处的相关分别为0.451和0.233(P<0.01),与孤独的相关为-0.383(P<0.01);依恋焦虑与社交回避和孤独的相关分别为0.410和0.622(P<0.01),而与积极独处的相关为-0.140(P<0.01)。方差分析显示不同依恋类型被试的独处行为明显不同,专注型的积极独处得分最低,而孤独得分最高;冷漠型在孤僻分量表得分最高;而害怕型则在社交回避分量表得分最高。结论:安全型依恋者以积极独处为主要特征,害怕型依恋以社交回避为主要特征,专注型依恋以孤独为主要特征,而冷漠型依恋则以孤僻为主要特征。     

Negative socio-emotional resonance in schizophrenia: a functional magnetic resonance imaging hypothesis

The aim of the present study is to use neuroscience theories about brain function (mirror-neurons MN) to draw inferences about the mechanisms supporting emotional resonance in two different groups of schizophrenia patients (with flat affect FA+ n = 13 and without flat affect FA- n = 11). We hypothesize that FA+ will not activate key brain areas involved in emotional processing. Conversely, FA- will have a functional mirror system for emotional resonance confirmed by activation of the prefrontal cortex and behavioral results. To test this hypothesis, we compared the two groups using blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) displaying a passive visual task (44 negative IAPS pictures and 44 neutral pictures). A random-effects analysis, for schizophrenia patients FA-, revealed significant loci of activation in the left mesial prefrontal (MPFC), right orbitofrontal (OFC) and left anterior cingulate cortices (ACC). Correlational analyses carried out between self-report ratings of negative feelings and BOLD signal changes revealed the existence of positive correlation in the LACC, LMPFC and ROFC. Conversely, FA+ did not show significant activation in the prefrontal cortex. We propose that negative emotional resonance induced by passively viewing negative pictures may be a form of "mirroring" that grounds negative feelings via an experiential mechanism. Hence, it could be argued that FA- were able to 'feel' emotions through this resonance behavior. Conversely, we suggest that the dysfunction seen in the FA+ group is a failure or distortion in the development of the MN system. This could be due to genetic or other endogenous causes, which affected prefrontal cortex MN involved in emotional resonance.     

Depressed mood and lateralized prefrontal activity during a Stroop task in adolescent children

Negative affective style and depressive disorders share a common pattern of brain activation asymmetry in adults, characterized by reduced left relative to right prefrontal activation. It is not clear whether a similar pattern of asymmetry is related to depressive mood state during the period of adolescence, an important stage of emotional and brain development. We correlated Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores from 16 adolescents with prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and amygdala activity during functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) of the Stroop Interference task. Depressed mood correlated positively with activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus, and negatively with activity in the right DLPFC. When interpreted from a compensatory recruitment perspective, findings suggest that affective lateralization in adolescents is consistent with that seen in adulthood.     

There are differences in cerebral activation between females in distinct menstrual phases during viewing of erotic stimuli: a fMRI study

There is evidence that men experience more sexual arousal than women but also that women in mid-luteal phase experience more sexual arousal than women outside this phase. Recently, a few functional brain imaging studies have tackled the issue of gender differences as pertaining to reactions to erotica. The question of whether or not gender differences in reactions to erotica are maintained with women in different phases has not yet been answered from a functional brain imaging perspective. In order to examine this issue, functional MRI was performed in 22 male and 22 female volunteers. Subjects viewed erotic film excerpts alternating with emotionally neutral excerpts in a standard block-design paradigm. Arousal to erotic stimuli was evaluated using standard rating scales after scanning. Two-sample t-test with uncorrected P<0.001 values for a priori determined region of interests involved in processing of erotic stimuli and with corrected P<0.05 revealed gender differences: Comparing women in mid-luteal phase and during their menses, superior activation was revealed for women in mid-luteal phase in the anterior cingulate, left insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. A superior activation for men was found in the left thalamus, the bilateral amygdala, the anterior cingulate, the bilateral orbitofrontal, bilateral parahippocampal, and insular regions, which were maintained at a corrected P in the amygdala, the insula, and thalamus. There were no areas of significant superior activation for women neither in mid-luteal phase nor during their menses. Our results indicate that there are differences between women in the two cycle times in cerebral activity during viewing of erotic stimuli. Furthermore, gender differences with women in mid-luteal phases are similar to those in females outside the mid-luteal phase.     

A double dissociation between mood states and personality traits in the anterior cingulate

Neuroticism and extraversion are personality traits associated with negative and positive mood states, respectively, confounding trait and state factors that may affect brain responses to emotional stimuli. The authors dissociated these factors using fMRI and the emotional Stroop attention task: Anterior cingulate (AC) response to positive stimuli varied as a function of personality trait, but not mood state, whereas AC response to negative stimuli varied as a function of mood state, but not personality trait. Negative mood, but not personality trait, also increased the functional connectivity between AC and other regions. Variance in AC activation can thus be ascribed to an intersubject variable (extraversion) when responding to positive stimuli and an intrasubject variable (mood) when responding to negative stimuli. The former may explain stable differences between extraverts and introverts. The latter may provide an adaptive mechanism to expand an individual's dynamic range in response to potentially dangerous or threatening stimuli.     

Remembering familiar people: the posterior cingulate cortex and autobiographical memory retrieval.

Most functional imaging studies of memory retrieval investigate memory for standardized laboratory stimuli. However, naturally acquired autobiographical memories differ from memories of standardized stimuli in important ways. Neuroimaging studies of natural memories may reveal distinctive patterns of brain activation and may have particular value in assessing clinical disorders of memory. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activation during successful retrieval of autobiographical memories elicited by name-cued recall of family members and friends. The caudal part of the left posterior cingulate cortex was the most strongly activated region and was significantly activated in all eight subjects studied. Most subjects also showed significant activation of the left anterior orbitomedial, anterior middle frontal, precuneus, cuneus, and posterior inferior parietal cortices, and the right posterior cingulate and motor cortices.Our findings are consistent with prior studies showing posterior cingulate cortex activation during autobiographical memory retrieval. This region is also consistently activated during retrieval of standardized memory stimuli when experimental designs emphasizing successful retrieval are employed. Our results support the hypothesis that the posterior cingulate cortex plays an important role in successful memory retrieval. The posterior cingulate cortex has strong reciprocal connections with entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices. Studies of early Alzheimer's disease, temporal lobectomy, and hypoxic amnesia show that hypometabolism of the posterior cingulate cortex is an early and prominent indicator of pathology in these patients. Our findings suggest that autobiographical memory retrieval tasks could be used to probe the functional status of the posterior cingulate cortex in patients with early Alzheimer's disease or at risk for that condition.     

The functional connectivity between amygdala and extrastriate visual cortex activity during emotional picture processing depends on stimulus novelty

Enhanced perceptual processing of emotional stimuli may be accomplished via amygdala-back-projections into the inferior temporal cortex. In the current study, we investigated the influence of stimulus novelty on the covariation between these brain regions during emotional picture processing. Participants viewed repeatedly presented and novel emotional and neutral pictures during fMRI-scanning. The amygdala showed stronger activation to emotional arousing stimuli that decreased rapidly when the same pictures were presented repeatedly. Emotional modulation of the amygdala was reinstated when novel emotional and neutral pictures were presented. Inferior temporal cortex (ITC) showed increased activation during processing of emotional stimuli irrespective of picture repetition. ITC and amygdala activity were highly correlated only during processing of novel emotional pictures. Therefore, we concluded that enhanced perceptual processing of emotional stimuli is triggered by an initial significance detection and corresponding feedback information by the amygdala but is maintained by other mechanisms.