Cunningham William A, Van Bavel Jay J, Johnsen Ingrid R
The Ohio State University, Psychology Department, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2008 Feb;19(2):152-60. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02061.x.
Although early research implicated the amygdala in automatic processing of negative information, more recent research suggests that it plays a more general role in processing the motivational relevance of various stimuli, suggesting that the relation between valence and amygdala activation may depend on contextual goals. This study provides experimental evidence that the relation between valence and amygdala activity is dynamically modulated by evaluative goals. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants evaluated the positive, negative, or overall (positive plus negative) aspects of famous people. When participants were providing overall evaluations, both positive and negative names were associated with amygdala activation. When they were evaluating positivity, positive names were associated with amygdala activity, and when they were evaluating negativity, negative names were associated with amygdala activity. Evidence for a negativity bias was found; modulation was more pronounced for positive than for negative information. These data suggest that the amygdala flexibly processes motivationally relevant evaluative information in accordance with current processing goals, but processes negative information less flexibly than positive information.
尽管早期研究表明杏仁核参与负面信息的自动处理，但最近的研究表明，它在处理各种刺激的动机相关性方面发挥着更普遍的作用，这表明效价与杏仁核激活之间的关系可能取决于情境目标。本研究提供了实验证据，表明效价与杏仁核活动之间的关系受到评价目标的动态调节。在功能磁共振成像期间，参与者评估名人的积极、消极或整体（积极加消极）方面。当参与者进行整体评价时，积极和消极的名字都与杏仁核激活有关。当他们评估积极性时，积极的名字与杏仁核活动有关，而当他们评估消极性时，消极的名字与杏仁核活动有关。发现了负性偏向的证据；对积极信息的调节比对消极信息更明显。这些数据表明，杏仁核根据当前的处理目标灵活地处理与动机相关的评价信息，但处理消极信息的灵活性低于积极信息。
