Beauregard Mario
Department of Radiology, Université de Montréal, Montreal (Quebec), Canada.
Prog Neurobiol. 2007 Mar;81(4):218-36. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2007.01.005. Epub 2007 Feb 9.
This article reviews neuroimaging studies of conscious and voluntary regulation of various emotional states (sexual arousal, sadness, negative emotion). The results of these studies show that metacognition and cognitive recontextualization selectively alters the way the brain processes and reacts to emotional stimuli. Neuroimaging studies of the effect of psychotherapy in patients suffering from diverse forms of psychopathology (obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, unipolar major depressive disorder, social phobia, spider phobia, borderline personality) are also examined. The results of these studies indicate that the mental functions and processes involved in diverse forms of psychotherapy exert a significant influence on brain activity. Neuroimaging investigations of the placebo effect in healthy individuals (placebo analgesia, psychostimulant expectation) and patients with Parkinson's disease or unipolar major depressive disorder are also reviewed. The results of these investigations demonstrate that beliefs and expectations can markedly modulate neurophysiological and neurochemical activity in brain regions involved in perception, movement, pain, and various aspects of emotion processing. Collectively, the findings of the neuroimaging studies reviewed here strongly support the view that the subjective nature and the intentional content (what they are "about" from a first-person perspective) of mental processes (e.g., thoughts, feelings, beliefs, volition) significantly influence the various levels of brain functioning (e.g., molecular, cellular, neural circuit) and brain plasticity. Furthermore, these findings indicate that mentalistic variables have to be seriously taken into account to reach a correct understanding of the neural bases of behavior in humans. An attempt is made to interpret the results of these neuroimaging studies with a new theoretical framework called the Psychoneural Translation Hypothesis.
本文综述了对各种情绪状态（性唤起、悲伤、负面情绪）进行有意识和自主调节的神经影像学研究。这些研究结果表明，元认知和认知重新情境化会选择性地改变大脑处理和应对情绪刺激的方式。本文还考察了心理治疗对患有各种精神病理学疾病（强迫症、惊恐障碍、单相重度抑郁症、社交恐惧症、蜘蛛恐惧症、边缘型人格障碍）患者影响的神经影像学研究。这些研究结果表明，各种形式心理治疗所涉及的心理功能和过程对大脑活动有重大影响。本文还综述了对健康个体（安慰剂镇痛、精神兴奋剂预期）以及帕金森病或单相重度抑郁症患者的安慰剂效应的神经影像学研究。这些研究结果表明，信念和预期能够显著调节参与感知、运动、疼痛以及情绪处理各个方面的脑区的神经生理和神经化学活动。总体而言，本文所综述的神经影像学研究结果有力地支持了这样一种观点，即心理过程（例如思想、情感、信念、意志）的主观性质和意向内容（从第一人称视角来看它们“关乎”什么）会显著影响大脑功能的各个层面（例如分子、细胞、神经回路）以及大脑可塑性。此外，这些研究结果表明，为了正确理解人类行为的神经基础，必须认真考虑心理主义变量。本文尝试用一种名为“心理神经转换假说”的新理论框架来解释这些神经影像学研究的结果。
