Tabert M H, Borod J C, Tang C Y, Lange G, Wei T C, Johnson R, Nusbaum A O, Buchsbaum M S
Department of Neurology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2001;39(6):556-73. doi: 10.1016/s0028-3932(00)00157-3.
This study used fMRI to examine the response of the amygdala in the evaluation and short-term recognition memory of unpleasant vs. neutral words in nine right-handed healthy adult women. To establish specificity of the amygdala response, we examined the fMRI BOLD signal in one control region (visual cortex). Alternating blocks of unpleasant and neutral trials were presented. During the emotional decision task, subjects viewed sets of three unpleasant or three neutral words while selecting the most unpleasant or neutral word, respectively. During the memory task, subjects identified words that were presented during the emotional decision task (0.50 probability). Images were detrended, filtered, and coregistered to standard brain coordinates. The Talairach coordinates for the center of the amygdala were chosen before analysis. The BOLD signal at this location in the right hemisphere revealed a greater amplitude signal for the unpleasant relative to the neutral words during the emotional decision but not the memory task, confirmed by Time Course x Word Condition ANOVAs. These results are consistent with the memory modulatory view of amygdala function, which suggests that the amygdala facilitates long-term, but not short-term, memory consolidation of emotionally significant material. The control area showed only an effect for Time Course for both the emotional decision and memory tasks, indicating the specificity of the amygdala response to the evaluation of unpleasant words. Moreover, the right-sided amygdala activation during the unpleasant word condition was strongly correlated with the BOLD response in the occipital cortex. These findings corroborate those by other researchers that the amygdala can modulate early processing of visual information in the occipital cortex. Finally, an increase in subject's state anxiety (evaluated by questionnaire) while in the scanner correlated with amygdala activation under some conditions.
本研究利用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）检测了9名右利手健康成年女性在评估和短期识别记忆不愉快词汇与中性词汇时杏仁核的反应。为确定杏仁核反应的特异性，我们在一个对照区域（视觉皮层）检测了fMRI血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号。呈现交替的不愉快和中性试验块。在情绪决策任务中，受试者分别查看三组不愉快或三组中性词汇，同时分别选择最不愉快或最中性的词汇。在记忆任务中，受试者识别在情绪决策任务中呈现过的词汇（概率为0.50）。对图像进行去趋势、滤波处理，并将其配准到标准脑坐标。在分析前选择杏仁核中心的Talairach坐标。通过时间进程×词汇条件方差分析证实，在情绪决策任务而非记忆任务中，右半球该位置的BOLD信号显示，相对于中性词汇，不愉快词汇的信号幅度更大。这些结果与杏仁核功能的记忆调节观点一致，该观点表明杏仁核促进对具有情感意义材料的长期而非短期记忆巩固。对照区域在情绪决策和记忆任务中仅显示出时间进程效应，表明杏仁核对不愉快词汇评估反应的特异性。此外，在不愉快词汇条件下右侧杏仁核的激活与枕叶皮层的BOLD反应密切相关。这些发现证实了其他研究人员的发现，即杏仁核可调节枕叶皮层中视觉信息的早期处理。最后，受试者在扫描仪内时状态焦虑的增加（通过问卷调查评估）在某些条件下与杏仁核激活相关。
