Neuroimaging Section, Division of Psychological Medicine, PO67, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park 103, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK.
J Clin Neurosci. 2010 Mar;17(3):311-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2009.06.027. Epub 2010 Jan 15.
Functional brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI) that allow the in vivo investigation of the human brain have been exponentially employed to address the neurophysiological substrates of emotional processing. Despite the growing number of fMRI studies in the field, when taken separately these individual imaging studies demonstrate contrasting findings and variable pictures, and are unable to definitively characterize the neural networks underlying each specific emotional condition. Different imaging packages, as well as the statistical approaches for image processing and analysis, probably have a detrimental role by increasing the heterogeneity of findings. In particular, it is unclear to what extent the observed neurofunctional response of the brain cortex during emotional processing depends on the fMRI package used in the analysis. In this pilot study, we performed a double analysis of an fMRI dataset using emotional faces. The Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) version 2.6 (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, UK) and the XBAM 3.4 (Brain Imaging Analysis Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, UK) programs, which use parametric and non-parametric analysis, respectively, were used to assess our results. Both packages revealed that processing of emotional faces was associated with an increased activation in the brain's visual areas (occipital, fusiform and lingual gyri), in the cerebellum, in the parietal cortex, in the cingulate cortex (anterior and posterior cingulate), and in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. However, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response in the temporal regions, insula and putamen was evident in the XBAM analysis but not in the SPM analysis. Overall, SPM and XBAM analyses revealed comparable whole-group brain responses. Further studies are needed to explore the between-group compatibility of the different imaging packages in other cognitive and emotional processing domains.
功能磁共振成像(fMRI)等功能脑成像技术可在活体状态下研究人脑，已被广泛用于研究情绪处理的神经生理基础。尽管该领域的 fMRI 研究数量不断增加，但这些单独的成像研究结果却相互矛盾，情况各不相同，无法明确确定每种特定情绪状态的神经网络。不同的成像套件以及图像处理和分析的统计方法可能通过增加结果的异质性而产生不利影响。特别是，尚不清楚在多大程度上观察到大脑皮层在情绪处理过程中的神经功能反应取决于分析中使用的 fMRI 套件。在这项初步研究中，我们使用情绪面孔对 fMRI 数据集进行了双重分析。使用分别采用参数和非参数分析的 Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) 版本 2.6（英国伦敦 Wellcome 认知神经科，London, UK）和 XBAM 3.4（英国伦敦国王学院精神病学研究所脑成像分析组，Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, UK）程序来评估我们的结果。这两个套件均表明，处理情绪面孔会导致大脑视觉区域（枕叶、梭状回和舌回）、小脑、顶叶、扣带回（前后扣带回）和背外侧和腹外侧前额叶的激活增加。然而，XBAM 分析中可见颞叶、岛叶和壳核的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应，但 SPM 分析中却没有。总的来说，SPM 和 XBAM 分析显示出相似的全组大脑反应。需要进一步的研究来探索不同成像套件在其他认知和情绪处理领域中的组间兼容性。
