Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, 3517 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204, USA.
Int J Neural Syst. 2020 Oct;30(10):2050051. doi: 10.1142/S0129065720500513. Epub 2020 Aug 19.
Emotion and affect play crucial roles in human life that can be disrupted by diseases. Functional brain networks need to dynamically reorganize within short time periods in order to efficiently process and respond to affective stimuli. Documenting these large-scale spatiotemporal dynamics on the same timescale they arise, however, presents a large technical challenge. In this study, the dynamic reorganization of the cortical functional brain network during an affective processing and emotion regulation task is documented using an advanced multi-model electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Sliding time window correlation and [Formula: see text]-means clustering are employed to explore the functional brain connectivity (FC) dynamics during the unaltered perception of neutral (moderate valence, low arousal) and negative (low valence, high arousal) stimuli and cognitive reappraisal of negative stimuli. Betweenness centralities are computed to identify central hubs within each complex network. Results from 20 healthy subjects indicate that the cortical mechanism for cognitive reappraisal follows a 'top-down' pattern that occurs across four brain network states that arise at different time instants (0-170[Formula: see text]ms, 170-370[Formula: see text]ms, 380-620[Formula: see text]ms, and 620-1000[Formula: see text]ms). Specifically, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is identified as a central hub to promote the connectivity structures of various affective states and consequent regulatory efforts. This finding advances our current understanding of the cortical response networks of reappraisal-based emotion regulation by documenting the recruitment process of four functional brain sub-networks, each seemingly associated with different cognitive processes, and reveals the dynamic reorganization of functional brain networks during emotion regulation.
情绪和情感在人类生活中起着至关重要的作用，但它们可能会被疾病所扰乱。为了有效地处理和响应情感刺激，功能大脑网络需要在短时间内动态地重新组织。然而，在它们出现的相同时间尺度上记录这些大规模的时空动力学，提出了一个巨大的技术挑战。在这项研究中，使用一种先进的多模型脑电图（EEG）和功能磁共振成像（fMRI）技术，记录了在情感处理和情绪调节任务期间皮质功能大脑网络的动态重新组织。滑动时间窗口相关和[Formula: see text]-均值聚类被用来探索在中性（中等效价，低唤醒）和负面（低效价，高唤醒）刺激的未改变感知以及负面刺激的认知再评价过程中的功能大脑连接（FC）动态。中心性被计算出来以识别每个复杂网络中的中心枢纽。来自 20 名健康受试者的结果表明，认知再评价的皮质机制遵循一种“自上而下”的模式，这种模式发生在四个不同时间点出现的大脑网络状态中（0-170[Formula: see text]ms、170-370[Formula: see text]ms、380-620[Formula: see text]ms 和 620-1000[Formula: see text]ms）。具体来说，背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）被确定为一个中心枢纽，以促进各种情感状态的连接结构和随之而来的调节努力。这一发现通过记录四个功能大脑子网络的招募过程，推进了我们对基于再评价的情绪调节的皮质反应网络的理解，每个子网络似乎都与不同的认知过程相关，并揭示了情绪调节过程中功能大脑网络的动态重新组织。
