Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, G128QB Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Brain Stimul. 2012 Apr;5(2):130-6. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2012.03.013. Epub 2012 Mar 31.
The neural bases of emotion are most often studied using short non-natural stimuli and assessed using correlational methods. Here we use a brain perturbation approach to make causal inferences between brain activity and emotional reaction to a long segment of dance.
OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: We aimed to apply offline rTMS over the brain regions involved in subjective emotional ratings to explore whether this could change the appreciation of a dance performance.
We first used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify regions correlated with fluctuating emotional rating during a 4-min dance performance, looking at both positive and negative correlation. Identified regions were further characterized using meta-data interrogation. Low-frequency repetitive TMS was applied over the most important node in a different group of participants prior to them rating the same dance performance as in the fMRI session.
FMRI revealed a negative correlation between subjective emotional judgement and activity in the right posterior parietal cortex. This region is commonly involved in cognitive tasks and not in emotional task. Parietal rTMS had no effect on the general affective response, but it significantly (P<0.05 using exact t-statistics) enhanced the rating of the moments eliciting the highest positive judgements.
These results establish a direct link between posterior parietal cortex activity and emotional reaction to dance. They can be interpreted in the framework of competition between resources allocated to emotion and resources allocated to cognitive functions. They highlight potential use of brain stimulation in neuro-æsthetic investigations.
情感的神经基础通常使用短的非自然刺激进行研究，并使用相关方法进行评估。在这里，我们使用大脑干扰方法来对大脑活动和对长段舞蹈的情绪反应之间进行因果推断。
目的/假设：我们旨在应用离线 rTMS 于涉及主观情感评分的大脑区域，以探索这是否可以改变对舞蹈表演的欣赏。
我们首先使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来识别在 4 分钟舞蹈表演期间与波动情感评分相关的区域，同时考虑正相关和负相关。使用元数据查询进一步描述识别出的区域。在同一舞蹈表演的 fMRI 会议之前，在另一组参与者中对最重要节点进行低频重复 TMS。
fMRI 显示主观情感判断与右后顶叶皮层的活动呈负相关。该区域通常参与认知任务而不是情感任务。顶叶 rTMS 对一般情感反应没有影响，但它显著（使用确切 t 统计量 P<0.05）增强了引发最高正面判断的时刻的评分。
这些结果建立了后顶叶皮层活动与对舞蹈的情绪反应之间的直接联系。它们可以在分配给情感和分配给认知功能的资源之间竞争的框架内进行解释。它们突出了脑刺激在神经美学研究中的潜在用途。
