Department of Child Psychiatry, University and University Hospital of Oulu, P.O. Box 26, 90029 Oulu, Finland.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2010 Jun;4(2):164-76. doi: 10.1007/s11682-010-9096-x.
This paper assessed the neural systems involved in processing of dynamic facial expressions in adolescents. The processing of facial expressions changes as a function of age, and it is thus important to understand how healthy adolescent subjects process dynamic facial expressions prior to analyzing disease-related changes. We hypothesized that viewing of dynamic facial expressions with opposing valences (happy vs. fearful) induces differential activations and deactivations in the brain. 27 healthy adolescents (9 female, 18 male, mean age = 14.5 years; age range 11.6-17.3 years) were examined by using the ASSQ and K-SADS-PL and scanned with 1.5-T fMRI during viewing of dynamic facial expressions and mosaic control images. The stimuli activated the same areas as previously seen in dynamic facial expression in adults. Our results indicated that opposing-valence dynamic facial expressions had differential effects on many cortical structures but not on subcortical limbic structures. The mirror neuron system is activated more during viewing of fearful compared to happy expressions in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal sulcus (STS) left dominantly. We also detected more deactivation in the ventral anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), showing more automated attentional processing of fearful expressions during passive viewing. Females were found to deactivate the right frontal pole more than male adolescents during happy facial expressions, while there were no differences in fear processing between genders. No clear gender or age effects were detected. In conclusion fear induces stronger responses in attention and mirror neurons probably related to fear contagion.
本研究评估了青少年处理动态面部表情的神经机制。随着年龄的增长，面部表情的处理方式会发生变化，因此，在分析与疾病相关的变化之前，了解健康青少年如何处理动态面部表情非常重要。我们假设，观看具有相反情绪效价（快乐与恐惧）的动态面部表情会在大脑中引起不同的激活和失活。我们使用 ASSQ 和 K-SADS-PL 对 27 名健康青少年（9 名女性，18 名男性，平均年龄=14.5 岁；年龄范围为 11.6-17.3 岁）进行了检查，并在观看动态面部表情和镶嵌控制图像时使用 1.5-T fMRI 对其进行了扫描。刺激激活了与以前在成人动态面部表情中看到的相同区域。我们的结果表明，具有相反效价的动态面部表情对许多皮质结构产生了不同的影响，但对皮质下边缘结构没有影响。与观看快乐表情相比，镜像神经元系统在观看恐惧表情时更活跃，在双侧额下回（IFG）和左侧颞上回（STS）中表现更为突出。我们还在腹侧前扣带回（ACG）中检测到更多的失活，表明在被动观看时，对恐惧表情的注意力处理更为自动化。与男性青少年相比，女性在观看快乐表情时会更多地使右侧额极失活，而在恐惧处理方面，两性之间没有差异。没有发现明显的性别或年龄效应。总之，恐惧会引起更强的注意力和镜像神经元反应，可能与恐惧传染有关。
