Hoffmann Marius, Mothes-Lasch Martin, Miltner Wolfgang H R, Straube Thomas
Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, Münster, D-48149, Germany.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2015 Feb;36(2):655-65. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22654. Epub 2014 Oct 16.
It is unknown to what extent briefly presented emotional words can be processed without awareness. By means of two independent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, using either a block or an event-related design, we investigated brain activation to very briefly presented threat related and neutral words during two backward masking conditions (with and without gap between target and mask). In both experiments, emotional words were perceived during the supraliminal "with gap" condition, but they were not recognized during the subliminal "without gap" condition, as indicated by signal detection theory analysis. Imaging results of both experiments showed increased activation of the amygdala, the medial prefrontal cortex and language-processing cortical areas to negative versus neutral words during supraliminal but not subliminal conditions. These results suggest that even very briefly presented emotional words are capable of triggering increased cortical and subcortical processing; however, only when awareness of these stimuli is given.
目前尚不清楚简短呈现的情感词汇在无意识状态下能被处理到何种程度。通过两项独立的功能磁共振成像研究，采用组块设计或事件相关设计，我们在两种逆向掩蔽条件下（目标词与掩蔽词之间有间隙和无间隙），研究了大脑对极简短呈现的与威胁相关和中性词汇的激活情况。在两个实验中，如信号检测理论分析所示，情感词汇在阈上“有间隙”条件下能被感知，但在阈下“无间隙”条件下无法被识别。两个实验的成像结果均显示，在阈上而非阈下条件下，杏仁核、内侧前额叶皮层和语言处理皮层区域对负面词汇相对于中性词汇的激活增加。这些结果表明，即使是极简短呈现的情感词汇也能够引发皮层和皮层下处理的增加；然而，只有当个体意识到这些刺激时才会如此。
