Seitz R J, Schäfer R, Scherfeld D, Friederichs S, Popp K, Wittsack H-J, Azari N P, Franz M
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany.
Neuroscience. 2008 Mar 27;152(3):713-22. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.10.066. Epub 2008 Jan 25.
Reading the facial expression of other people is a fundamental skill for social interaction. Human facial expressions of emotions are readily recognized but may also evoke the same experiential emotional state in the observer. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-channel electroencephalography to determine in 14 right-handed healthy volunteers (29+/-6 years) which brain structures mediate the perception of such a shared experiential emotional state. Statistical parametric mapping showed that an area in the dorsal medial frontal cortex was specifically activated during the perception of emotions that reflected the seen happy and sad emotional face expressions. This area mapped to the pre-supplementary motor area which plays a central role in control of behavior. Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography-based analysis of the encephalographic data revealed that the activation was detected 100 ms after face presentation onset lasting until 740 ms. Our observation substantiates recently emerging evidence suggesting that the subjective perception of an experiential emotional state-empathy-is mediated by the involvement of the dorsal medial frontal cortex.
解读他人的面部表情是社交互动的一项基本技能。人类的情绪面部表情很容易被识别，而且还可能在观察者身上引发相同的体验性情绪状态。我们使用事件相关功能磁共振成像和多通道脑电图，对14名右利手健康志愿者（29±6岁）进行研究，以确定哪些脑结构介导了对这种共享体验性情绪状态的感知。统计参数映射显示，在感知反映所看到的快乐和悲伤情绪面部表情的情绪时，背内侧前额叶皮质的一个区域被特异性激活。该区域映射到辅助运动前区，其在行为控制中起核心作用。基于低分辨率脑电磁断层扫描对脑电图数据的分析显示，在面部呈现开始后100毫秒检测到激活，持续到740毫秒。我们的观察证实了最近出现的证据，表明体验性情绪状态——共情的主观感知是由背内侧前额叶皮质的参与介导的。
