Shibata Kazuhisa, Watanabe Takeo, Kawato Mitsuo, Sasaki Yuka
Brain Information Communication Research Laboratory Group, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Keihanna Science City, Kyoto, Japan.
Department of Cognitive, Linguistics, & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2016 Sep 8;14(9):e1002546. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002546. eCollection 2016 Sep.
In human studies, how averaged activation in a brain region relates to human behavior has been extensively investigated. This approach has led to the finding that positive and negative facial preferences are represented by different brain regions. However, using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) decoded neurofeedback (DecNef) method, we found that different patterns of neural activations within the cingulate cortex (CC) play roles in representing opposite directions of facial preference. In the present study, while neutrally preferred faces were presented, multi-voxel activation patterns in the CC that corresponded to higher (or lower) preference were repeatedly induced by fMRI DecNef. As a result, previously neutrally preferred faces became more (or less) preferred. We conclude that a different activation pattern in the CC, rather than averaged activation in a different area, represents and suffices to determine positive or negative facial preference. This new approach may reveal the importance of an activation pattern within a brain region in many cognitive functions.
在人体研究中，大脑区域的平均激活与人类行为之间的关系已得到广泛研究。这种方法已得出如下发现：正面和负面的面部偏好由不同的脑区表征。然而，使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）解码神经反馈（DecNef）方法，我们发现扣带回皮质（CC）内不同的神经激活模式在表征面部偏好的相反方向中发挥作用。在本研究中，当呈现中性偏好的面孔时，fMRI DecNef反复诱导出CC中与更高（或更低）偏好相对应的多体素激活模式。结果，先前中性偏好的面孔变得更受（或更不受）喜爱。我们得出结论，CC中不同的激活模式，而非不同区域的平均激活，表征并足以确定正面或负面的面部偏好。这种新方法可能揭示大脑区域内激活模式在许多认知功能中的重要性。
