George M S, Ketter T A, Parekh P I, Horwitz B, Herscovitch P, Post R M
Biological Psychiatry Branch, NIMH, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Am J Psychiatry. 1995 Mar;152(3):341-51. doi: 10.1176/ajp.152.3.341.
The specific brain regions involved in the normal emotional states of transient sadness or happiness are poorly understood. The authors therefore sought to determine if H2(15)O positron emission tomography (PET) might demonstrate changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) associated with transient sadness or happiness in healthy adult women.
Eleven healthy and never mentally ill adult women were scanned, by using PET and H2(15)O, during happy, sad, and neutral states induced by recalling affect-appropriate life events and looking at happy, sad, or neutral human faces.
Compared to the neutral condition, transient sadness significantly activated bilateral limbic and paralimbic structures (cingulate, medial prefrontal, and mesial temporal cortex), as well as brainstem, thalamus, and caudate/putamen. In contrast, transient happiness had no areas of significantly increased activity but was associated with significant and widespread reductions in cortical rCBF, especially in the right prefrontal and bilateral temporal-parietal regions.
Transient sadness and happiness in healthy volunteer women are accompanied by significant changes in regional brain activity in the limbic system, as well as other brain regions. Transient sadness and happiness affect different brain regions in divergent directions and are not merely opposite activity in identical brain regions. These findings have implications for understanding the neural substrates of both normal and pathological emotion.
人们对参与短暂悲伤或快乐等正常情绪状态的特定脑区了解甚少。因此，作者试图确定H2(15)O正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是否能显示健康成年女性在短暂悲伤或快乐时脑局部血流（rCBF）的变化。
通过PET和H2(15)O对11名健康且从未患过精神疾病的成年女性进行扫描，扫描时让她们回忆与情绪相符的生活事件并观看快乐、悲伤或中性的人脸，以此诱导出快乐、悲伤和中性状态。
与中性状态相比，短暂悲伤显著激活了双侧边缘系统和边缘旁结构（扣带回、内侧前额叶和颞叶内侧皮质），以及脑干、丘脑和尾状核/壳核。相比之下，短暂快乐没有显著增加活动的区域，但与皮质rCBF的显著且广泛降低有关，尤其是在右侧前额叶和双侧颞顶叶区域。
健康志愿者女性的短暂悲伤和快乐伴随着边缘系统以及其他脑区的脑区活动显著变化。短暂悲伤和快乐以不同方向影响不同脑区，并非仅仅是同一脑区的相反活动。这些发现对理解正常和病理性情绪的神经基础具有启示意义。
