University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103,
Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, and.
J Neurosci. 2019 Feb 13;39(7):1293-1300. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1651-18.2018. Epub 2019 Jan 7.
Emotionally evocative messages can be an effective way to change behavior, but the neural pathways that translate messages into effects on individuals and populations are not fully understood. We used a human functional neuroimaging approach to ask how affect-, value-, and regulation-related brain systems interact to predict effects of graphic anti-smoking messages for individual smokers (both males and females) and within a population-level messaging campaign. Results indicated that increased activity in the amygdala, a region involved in affective reactivity, predicted both personal quit intentions and population-level information-seeking and this was mediated by activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region involved in computing an integrative value signal. Further, the predictive value of these regions was moderated by expression of a meta-analytically defined brain pattern indexing emotion regulation. That is, amygdala and vmPFC activity strongly tracked with population behavior only when participants showed low recruitment of this brain pattern, which consists of regions involved in goal-driven regulation of affective responses. Overall, these findings suggest that affective and value-related brain responses can predict the success of persuasive messages and that neural mechanisms of emotion regulation can shape these responses, moderating the extent to which they track with population-level message impact. People and organizations often appeal to our emotions to persuade us, but how these appeals engage the brain to drive behavior is not fully understood. We present an fMRI-based model that integrates affect-, control-, and value-related brain responses to predict the impact of graphic anti-smoking stimuli within a small group of smokers and a larger-scale public messaging campaign. This model indicated that amygdala activity predicted the impact of the anti-smoking messages, but that this relationship was mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex and moderated by expression of a distributed brain pattern associated with regulating emotion. These results suggest that neural mechanisms of emotion regulation can shape the extent to which affect and value-related brain responses track with population behavioral effects.
情感唤起信息可以成为改变行为的有效方式，但将信息转化为个体和群体影响的神经途径尚不完全清楚。我们使用人类功能神经影像学方法来研究情感、价值和调节相关脑系统如何相互作用，以预测图形反吸烟信息对个体吸烟者（男性和女性）的影响，以及在人群水平的信息传播活动中的影响。结果表明，杏仁核（参与情感反应的区域）活动增加预测了个人戒烟意愿和人群信息寻求，这是由腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）活动介导的，vmPFC 是一个参与计算综合价值信号的区域。此外，这些区域的预测价值受到情绪调节的元分析定义的大脑模式表达的调节。也就是说，只有当参与者表现出这种大脑模式的低招募时，杏仁核和 vmPFC 的活动才会强烈追踪人群行为，这种大脑模式由参与情感反应的目标驱动调节的区域组成。总的来说，这些发现表明情感和价值相关的大脑反应可以预测有说服力的信息的成功，情绪调节的神经机制可以塑造这些反应，调节它们与人群水平信息影响的程度。人们和组织经常诉诸于我们的情感来说服我们，但这些呼吁如何使大脑参与行为尚不完全清楚。我们提出了一种基于 fMRI 的模型，该模型整合了情感、控制和价值相关的大脑反应，以预测在一小群吸烟者和更大规模的公众信息传播活动中图形反吸烟刺激的影响。该模型表明，杏仁核活动预测了反吸烟信息的影响，但这种关系是由腹内侧前额叶皮层介导的，并且受到与调节情绪相关的分布式大脑模式表达的调节。这些结果表明，情绪调节的神经机制可以塑造情感和价值相关的大脑反应与人群行为影响的程度。
