Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2019 Dec 15;40(18):5382-5396. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24779. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
Rapid emotion processing is an ecologically essential ability for survival in social environments in which threatening or advantageous encounters dynamically and rapidly occur. Efficient emotion recognition is subserved by different processes, depending on one's expectations; however, the underlying functional and structural circuitry is still poorly understood. In this study, we delineate brain networks that subserve fast recognition of emotion in situations either congruent or incongruent with prior expectations. For this purpose, we used multimodal neuroimaging and investigated performance on a dynamic emotion perception task. We show that the extended amygdala structural and functional networks relate to speed of emotion processing under threatening conditions. Specifically, increased microstructure of the right stria terminalis, an amygdala white-matter pathway, was related to faster detection of emotion during actual presentation of anger or after cueing anger. Moreover, functional connectivity of right amygdala with limbic regions was related to faster detection of anger congruent with cue, suggesting selective attention to threat. On the contrary, we found that faster detection of anger incongruent with cue engaged the ventral attention "reorienting" network. Faster detection of happiness, in either expectancy context, engaged a widespread frontotemporal-subcortical functional network. These findings shed light on the functional and structural circuitries that facilitate speed of emotion recognition and, for the first time, elucidate a role for the stria terminalis in human emotion processing.
快速情绪处理是在社会环境中生存的一种生态必需能力，在这种环境中，威胁或有利的遭遇会动态而迅速地发生。有效的情绪识别由不同的过程来支持，这取决于一个人的期望；然而，其潜在的功能和结构回路仍然知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们描绘了在与先前期望一致或不一致的情况下快速识别情绪的大脑网络。为此，我们使用了多模态神经影像学，并研究了在动态情绪感知任务上的表现。我们表明，扩展的杏仁核结构和功能网络与威胁条件下的情绪处理速度有关。具体来说，右侧终纹的微观结构增加，即杏仁核的白质通路，与在实际呈现愤怒或在提示愤怒后更快地检测到情绪有关。此外，右侧杏仁核与边缘区域的功能连接与与提示一致的愤怒更快的检测有关，这表明对威胁的选择性注意。相反，我们发现，与提示不一致的愤怒的更快检测涉及腹侧注意“重新定向”网络。无论是在期望背景下，更快地检测到幸福都涉及到广泛的额颞皮质下功能网络。这些发现揭示了促进情绪识别速度的功能和结构回路，并且首次阐明了终纹在人类情绪处理中的作用。
