Emotional valence of words modulates the subliminal repetition priming effect in the left fusiform gyrus: an event-related fMRI study.

The present study investigated if the emotional valence of words modulates the subliminal repetition priming effect in the brain, in particular, the occipitotemporal visual cortex, by adopting a rapid presentation event-related fMRI design. A masked repetition priming paradigm was adopted, in which, before the presentation of the target (either positive or negative or neutral in meaning), a masked prime word that was either a repetition or an unrelated word of the target was presented. The subject made a perceptual judgment on the target. The results revealed that the left mid-fusiform gyrus was sensitive to the emotional manipulation of the repetition priming effect and that the priming effect in the region was greater in the positive than in the negative word condition. The priming effect in the fusiform gyrus in neutral words was not significant, which might be a result of suppression caused by the emotional context. No effect of valence or repetition was found in the amygdala.