Schmitgen Mike M, Walter Henrik, Drost Sarah, Rückl Sarah, Schnell Knut
Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2016 Apr 1;129:450-459. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.01.029. Epub 2016 Jan 21.
Successful social interaction requires knowledge about another person's emotional states, represented in an affective theory of mind (ToM). This information can be acquired either directly or indirectly, i.e., by observing emotional facial expressions (EFE) or indirectly by inferring emotions through cognitive perspective taking. Therefore, it is of great interest how the function of the cortical ToM network and the limbic system in affective ToM depends on the presence of facial expressions. We addressed this question in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The experimental paradigm applied a well-established ToM cartoon task to test functional effects of EFE on the activation of the amygdala and the anterior ToM network during affective ToM judgments. During the task, 22 healthy participants had to judge the changes of the emotional state of the stories protagonist in the presence or absence of EFE. After quality control, 21 data sets entered the final analyses. The presence of EFE during affective ToM judgments was associated with shorter reaction times as well as increased activation of the right amygdala, most probably located in the basolateral nucleus (BLA), coincident with reduced activation of ToM-related regions of the prefrontal cortex. Psychophysiological interactions (PPI) revealed EFE-dependent modulation of connectivity between the right BLA and the contralateral ToM network regions. In combination with the functional interaction of EFE and affective ToM in the right amygdala, our data suggest a complementary but parallel organization of EFE processing and affective ToM. In this framework, the amygdala seems to act as an EFE detector when affective ToM judgments are demanded. Additionally, the facts that EFE induced exclusively right-sided amygdala activation and modulated the connectivity with the contralateral ToM network support the idea of a functional lateralization of stimulus driven components of affective ToM.
成功的社交互动需要了解他人的情绪状态，这在情感心理理论（ToM）中有所体现。这些信息可以直接或间接获取，即通过观察情绪性面部表情（EFE），或者通过认知视角采择间接推断情绪。因此，皮质ToM网络和边缘系统在情感ToM中的功能如何依赖于面部表情的存在，这一点非常令人感兴趣。我们在一项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中探讨了这个问题。实验范式采用了一个成熟的ToM卡通任务，以测试EFE对情感ToM判断过程中杏仁核和前ToM网络激活的功能影响。在任务过程中, 22名健康参与者必须在有或没有EFE的情况下判断故事主人公情绪状态的变化。经过质量控制后，21个数据集进入最终分析。情感ToM判断过程中EFE的存在与更短的反应时间以及右侧杏仁核激活增加有关，最有可能位于基底外侧核（BLA），同时前额叶皮质中与ToM相关区域的激活减少。心理生理交互作用（PPI）揭示了右侧BLA与对侧ToM网络区域之间的连接存在EFE依赖性调制。结合EFE与右侧杏仁核中情感ToM的功能相互作用，我们的数据表明EFE处理和情感ToM存在互补但并行的组织方式。在此框架下，当需要进行情感ToM判断时，杏仁核似乎充当了EFE探测器。此外，EFE仅诱导右侧杏仁核激活并调节与对侧ToM网络的连接这一事实，支持了情感ToM刺激驱动成分功能侧化的观点。
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