Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Neuroimage. 2011 Oct 1;58(3):963-73. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.077. Epub 2011 Jul 2.
Emotions are often understood in relation to conditioned responses. Narrative emotions, however, cannot be reduced to a simple associative relationship between emotion words and their experienced counterparts. Intensity in stories may arise without any overt emotion depicting words and vice versa. In this fMRI study we investigated BOLD responses to naturally fluctuating emotions evoked by listening to a story. The emotional intensity profile of the text was found through a rating study. The validity of this profile was supported by heart rate variability (HRV) data showing a significant correspondence across participants between intensity ratings and HRV measurements obtained during fMRI. With this ecologically valid stimulus we found that narrative intensity was accompanied by activation in temporal cortices, medial geniculate nuclei in the thalamus and amygdala, brain regions that are all part of the system for processing conditioned emotional responses to auditory stimuli. These findings suggest that this system also underpins narrative emotions in spite of their complex nature. Traditional language regions and premotor cortices were also activated during intense parts of the story whereas orbitofrontal cortex was found linked to emotion with positive valence, regardless of level of intensity.
情绪通常被理解为与条件反射有关。然而，叙事情绪不能简化为情绪词与其所经历的对应词之间的简单联想关系。故事中的强度可能会在没有任何明显情感描写词的情况下出现，反之亦然。在这项 fMRI 研究中，我们调查了听故事引发的自然波动情绪的 BOLD 反应。通过一项评分研究发现了文本的情绪强度特征。该特征的有效性得到了心率变异性 (HRV) 数据的支持，该数据显示参与者在 fMRI 期间获得的强度评分和 HRV 测量之间存在显著对应关系。通过这种生态有效的刺激，我们发现叙事强度伴随着颞叶皮质、丘脑内侧膝状体核和杏仁核的激活，这些都是处理听觉刺激条件性情绪反应的系统的一部分。这些发现表明，尽管叙事情绪很复杂，但该系统也支持叙事情绪。在故事的激烈部分，传统的语言区域和运动前皮质也被激活，而眶额皮质与积极的情绪相关联，而与强度无关。
