ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

›› 2011, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (8): 1099-1103.

• 博士论坛 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal Dynamics for Emotional Processing

LUO Qian;PENG Dan-Ling;LIU Hong-Yan   

  1. (1 MEG Center, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Saint Louis School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63104, USA)
    (2 Unit on Affective Cognitive Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA);
    (3 Beijing Normal University, National key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing 100875, China)
  • Received:2011-05-26 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2011-08-15 Published:2011-08-15
  • Contact: LUO Qian;PENG Dan-Ling

Abstract: This is a review of the research work on emotional processing that Dr. Qian Luo and colleagues have performed in recent years. Using behavioral and brain imaging techniques including fMRI and MEG, we have identified the neural mechanisms underlying privileged and automatic processing of emotional stimuli. These are revealed first by showing the neural basis for emotional processing at the subliminal level. Particularly enhanced activation in occipitotemporal cortex, amygdala and attention-related regions for emotional relative to neutral stimuli presented subliminally possibly underlie the biased processing of emotional stimuli even when stimuli are unseen. Second, we revealed the spatiotemporal dynamics and functional connectivity between regions involved in emotional processing. Particularly, we provided first direct evidence in humans that the quick automatic emotional response is based on the subcortical route from thalamus to amygdala. Moreover, the spatiotemporal development between regions sensory cortex, amygdala, frontal cortex were also identified. Thirdly we investigated the interaction between emotion and attention. We found that amygdala automaticity was a function of time: while early amygdala responding to emotional stimuli was unaffected by attention, later amygdala response, subsequent to frontoparietal cortex activity, was modulated by attentional load.

Key words: emotion, brain, fMRI, MEG, spatial, temporal