Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
Department of Neurosurgery, Human Brain Research Laboratory, University of Iowa, IA 52241, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 Aug;145:106571. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.11.015. Epub 2017 Nov 13.
Emotions involve many cortical and subcortical regions, prominently including the amygdala. It remains unknown how these multiple network components interact, and it remains unknown how they cause the behavioral, autonomic, and experiential effects of emotions. Here we describe a framework for combining a novel technique, concurrent electrical stimulation with fMRI (es-fMRI), together with a novel analysis, inferring causal structure from fMRI data (causal discovery). We outline a research program for investigating human emotion with these new tools, and provide initial findings from two large resting-state datasets as well as case studies in neurosurgical patients with electrical stimulation of the amygdala. The overarching goal is to use causal discovery methods on fMRI data to infer causal graphical models of how brain regions interact, and then to further constrain these models with direct stimulation of specific brain regions and concurrent fMRI. We conclude by discussing limitations and future extensions. The approach could yield anatomical hypotheses about brain connectivity, motivate rational strategies for treating mood disorders with deep brain stimulation, and could be extended to animal studies that use combined optogenetic fMRI.
情绪涉及许多皮质和皮质下区域，其中突出的包括杏仁核。目前尚不清楚这些多个网络组件如何相互作用，也不清楚它们如何导致情绪的行为、自主和体验效应。在这里，我们描述了一个结合新的技术（同时进行的电刺激和 fMRI，es-fMRI）以及新的分析方法（从 fMRI 数据推断因果结构，因果发现）的框架。我们概述了一个用这些新工具研究人类情绪的研究计划，并提供了来自两个大型静息状态数据集的初步结果以及对接受杏仁核电刺激的神经外科患者的案例研究。总体目标是使用 fMRI 数据上的因果发现方法推断大脑区域相互作用的因果图形模型，然后使用对特定大脑区域的直接刺激和并发 fMRI 进一步约束这些模型。最后，我们讨论了局限性和未来的扩展。该方法可以产生关于大脑连接的解剖学假设，为使用深部脑刺激治疗情绪障碍提供合理的策略，并可以扩展到使用联合光遗传学 fMRI 的动物研究。
