Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2011 Aug;49(10):2947-56. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.06.026. Epub 2011 Jul 2.
The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the role of emotion-related (e.g., amygdala) and self-related brain structures (MPFC in particular) in the processing of emotional words varying in stimulus reference. Healthy subjects (N=22) were presented with emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) or neutral words in three different conditions: (1) self (e.g., my fear), (2) other (e.g., his fear) and (3) no reference (e.g., the fear). Processing of unpleasant words was associated with increased amygdala and also insula activation across all conditions. Pleasant stimuli were specifically associated with increased activation of amygdala and insula when related to the self (vs. other and no reference). Activity in the MPFC (vMPFC in particular) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was preferentially increased during processing of self-related emotional words (vs. other and no reference). These results demonstrate that amygdala activation in response to emotional stimuli is modulated by stimulus reference and that brain structures implicated in emotional and self-related processing might be important for the subjective experience of one's own emotions.
本功能磁共振成像研究调查了情绪相关（例如杏仁核）和自我相关脑结构（特别是 MPFC）在处理刺激参考不同的情绪词中的作用。健康受试者（N=22）在三种不同条件下接受情绪（愉快或不愉快）或中性词：（1）自我（例如，我的恐惧），（2）他人（例如，他的恐惧）和（3）无参考（例如，恐惧）。不愉快的词语处理与杏仁核和岛叶的激活增加有关，所有条件下均如此。当与自我（与他人和无参考相比）相关时，愉快的刺激特别与杏仁核和岛叶的激活增加有关。MPFC（特别是 vMPFC）和前扣带皮层（ACC）的活动在处理自我相关的情绪词时优先增加（与他人和无参考相比）。这些结果表明，杏仁核对情绪刺激的反应受到刺激参考的调节，并且涉及情绪和自我相关处理的脑结构可能对自身情绪的主观体验很重要。
