Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Biol Psychol. 2011 Mar;86(3):203-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.11.009. Epub 2010 Dec 2.
Enhanced perceptual processing of emotional stimuli may be accomplished via amygdala-back-projections into the inferior temporal cortex. In the current study, we investigated the influence of stimulus novelty on the covariation between these brain regions during emotional picture processing. Participants viewed repeatedly presented and novel emotional and neutral pictures during fMRI-scanning. The amygdala showed stronger activation to emotional arousing stimuli that decreased rapidly when the same pictures were presented repeatedly. Emotional modulation of the amygdala was reinstated when novel emotional and neutral pictures were presented. Inferior temporal cortex (ITC) showed increased activation during processing of emotional stimuli irrespective of picture repetition. ITC and amygdala activity were highly correlated only during processing of novel emotional pictures. Therefore, we concluded that enhanced perceptual processing of emotional stimuli is triggered by an initial significance detection and corresponding feedback information by the amygdala but is maintained by other mechanisms.
增强对情绪刺激的感知处理可以通过杏仁核向后投射到下颞叶皮层来实现。在当前的研究中，我们调查了刺激新颖性对情绪图片处理过程中这些脑区之间协变的影响。参与者在 fMRI 扫描期间观看重复呈现的和新的情绪和中性图片。当呈现相同的图片时，杏仁核对情绪唤醒刺激的激活迅速减弱。当呈现新的情绪和中性图片时，杏仁核的情绪调节得以恢复。下颞叶皮层（ITC）在处理情绪刺激时表现出增加的激活，而与图片重复无关。只有在处理新的情绪图片时，ITC 和杏仁核的活动才高度相关。因此，我们得出结论，对情绪刺激的增强感知处理是由杏仁核的初始意义检测和相应的反馈信息触发的，但由其他机制维持。
