Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2011 Feb;15(2):85-93. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.11.004. Epub 2010 Dec 16.
Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal cognitive and ventral-rostral affective subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear or anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC and mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, whereas ventral-rostral portions of the ACC and mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.
负性情绪刺激激活了广泛的脑区网络，包括内侧前额叶（mPFC）和前扣带回（ACC）皮质。早期有一个有影响力的观点将这些区域分为背侧-尾侧认知和腹侧-吻侧情感两个亚区。在这篇综述中，我们使用恐惧或焦虑的例子，考察了大量关于动物和人类负性情绪的最新研究，并得出结论，与传统的二分法相反，这两个亚区都对情绪处理有重要贡献。具体来说，ACC 和 mPFC 的背侧-尾侧区域参与负性情绪的评估和表达，而 ACC 和 mPFC 的腹侧-吻侧区域则对涉及产生情绪反应的边缘区域具有调节作用。此外，这个新框架与其他负性和正性情绪的新兴数据广泛一致。
