Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Ul. Ingardena 6, 30-060, Kraków, Poland.
Neurobiology Department, The Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Ul. Gronostajowa 7A, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
Brain Struct Funct. 2018 May;223(4):1589-1597. doi: 10.1007/s00429-017-1576-y. Epub 2017 Nov 27.
Processing of emotional visual information engages cognitive functions and induces arousal. We aimed to examine the modulatory role of emotional valence on brain activations linked to the processing of visual information and those linked to arousal. Participants were scanned and their pupil size was measured while viewing negative and neutral images. The visual noise was added to the images in various proportions to parametrically manipulate the amount of visual information. Pupil size was used as an index of physiological arousal. We show that arousal induced by the negative images, as compared to the neutral ones, is primarily related to greater amygdala activity while increasing visibility of negative content to enhanced activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC). We argue that more intense visual processing of negative scenes can occur irrespective of the level of arousal. It may suggest that higher areas of the visual stream are fine-tuned to process emotionally relevant objects. Both arousal and processing of emotional visual information modulated activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Overlapping activations within the vmPFC may reflect the integration of these aspects of emotional processing. Additionally, we show that emotionally-evoked pupil dilations are related to activations in the amygdala, vmPFC, and LOC.
处理情绪视觉信息涉及认知功能和唤醒。我们旨在研究情绪效价对与视觉信息处理相关的大脑激活和与唤醒相关的大脑激活的调节作用。参与者在观看负性和中性图像时进行扫描并测量他们的瞳孔大小。通过向图像中添加不同比例的视觉噪声来参数化地操纵视觉信息量。瞳孔大小用作生理唤醒的指标。我们表明，与中性图像相比，负性图像引起的唤醒主要与杏仁核活动增强有关，而增加负性内容的可见度则与外侧枕叶复合体（LOC）的活动增强有关。我们认为，即使在唤醒水平较低的情况下，也可以更强烈地处理负性场景。这可能表明视觉流的较高区域经过了微调，可以处理与情绪相关的对象。情绪视觉信息的处理和唤醒都会调节腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）的活动。vmPFC 内的重叠激活可能反映了这些情绪处理方面的整合。此外，我们还表明，情绪诱发的瞳孔扩张与杏仁核、vmPFC 和 LOC 的激活有关。
