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Charitable donations are an altruistic behavior whereby individuals donate money or other resources to benefit others while the recipient is normally absent from the context. Several psychological factors have been shown to influence charitable donations, including a cost-benefit analysis, the motivation to engage in altruistic behavior, and the perceived psychological benefits of donation. Recent work has identified the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) for assigning value to options in social decision making tasks, with other regions involved in empathy and emotion contributing input to the value computation (e.g. Hare et al., 2010; Hutcherson et al., 2015; Tusche et al., 2016). Most impressively, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) has been applied to fMRI data to predict donation behavior on a trial-by-trial basis from ventral MPFC activity (Hare et al., 2010) while identifying the contribution of emotional processing in other regions to the value computation (e.g. Tusche et al., 2016). MVPA of EEG data may be able to provide further insight into the timing and scalp topography of neural activity related to both value computation and emotional effects on donation behavior. We examined the effect of incidental emotional states and the perceived urgency of the charitable cause on donation behavior using support vector regression on EEG data to predict donation amount on a trial by trial basis. We used positive, negative, and neutral pictures to induce incidental emotional states in participants before they made donation decisions concerning two types of charities. One category of charity was oriented toward saving people from current suffering, and the other was to prevent future suffering. Behaviorally, subjects donated more money in a negative emotional state relative to other emotional states, and more money to alleviate current over future suffering. The data-driven multivariate pattern analysis revealed that the electrophysiological activity elicited by both emotion-priming pictures and charity cues could predict the variation in donation magnitude on a trial-by trial basis.

The development of numerical and arithmetic abilities constitutes a crucial cornerstone in our modern and educated societies. Difficulties to acquire these central skills can lead to severe consequences for an individual's well-being and nation's economy. In the present review, we describe our current broad understanding of the functional and structural brain organization that supports the development of numbers and arithmetic. The existing evidence points towards a complex interaction among multiple domain-specific (e.g., representation of quantities and number symbols) and domain-general (e.g., working memory, visual-spatial abilities) cognitive processes, as well as a dynamic integration of several brain regions into functional networks that support these processes. These networks are mainly, but not exclusively, located in regions of the frontal and parietal cortex, and the functional and structural dynamics of these networks differ as a function of age and performance level. Distinctive brain activation patterns have also been shown for children with dyscalculia, a specific learning disability in the domain of mathematics. Although our knowledge about the developmental brain dynamics of number and arithmetic has greatly improved over the past years, many questions about the interaction and the causal involvement of the abovementioned functional brain networks remain. This review provides a broad and critical overview of the known developmental processes and what is yet to be discovered. ispartof: NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING vol:6 issue:1 ispartof: location:England status: published

The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that the cortical representation of visceral signals is a crucial component of emotional processing. No previous study has investigated the information flow among brain regions that process visceral information during emotional perception. In this magnetoencephalography study of 32 healthy subjects of either sex, heartbeat-evoked responses (HERs), which reflect the cortical processing of heartbeats, were modulated by the perception of a sad face. The modulation effect was localized to the prefrontal cortices, the globus pallidus, and an interoceptive network including the right anterior insula (RAI) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (RdACC). Importantly, our Granger causality analysis provides the first evidence for the increased flow of heartbeat information from the RAI to the RdACC during sad face perception. Moreover, using a surrogate R-peak analysis, we have shown that this HER modulation effect was time-locked to heartbeats. These findings advance the understanding of brain-body interactions during emotional processing.

As fathers are increasingly involved in childcare, understanding the neurological underpinnings of fathering has become a key research issue in developmental psychobiology research. This systematic review specifically focused on (1) highlighting methodological issues of paternal brain research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and (2) summarizing findings related to paternal brain responses to auditory and visual infant stimuli. Sixteen papers were included from 157 retrieved records. Sample characteristics (e.g., fathers’ and infant’s age, number of kids, and time spent caregiving), neuroimaging information (e.g., technique, task, stimuli, and processing), and main findings were synthesized by two independent authors. Most of the reviewed works used different stimuli and tasks to test fathers’ responses to child visual and/or auditory stimuli. Pre-processing and first-level analyses were performed with standard pipelines. Greater heterogeneity emerged in second-level analyses. Three main cortical networks (mentalization, embodied simulation, and emotion regulation) and a subcortical network emerged linked with fathers’ responses to infants’ stimuli, but additional areas (e.g., frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex) were also responsive to infants’ visual or auditory stimuli. This review suggests that a distributed and complex brain network may be involved in facilitating fathers’ sensitivity and responses to infant-related stimuli. Nonetheless, specific methodological caveats, the exploratory nature of large parts of the literature to date, and the presence of heterogeneous tasks and measures also demonstrate that systematic improvements in study designs are needed to further advance the field.

Background: Frequent exposure to criticism is a known risk factor for various adult psychiatric disorders. Adolescents may be even more vulnerable to (parental) criticism, as their imbalanced brain maturation makes them prone to stronger mood changes and less effective emotional regulation. Identifying which adolescent subgroups are more vulnerable than others could be of great clinical relevance. Perceived criticism (PC) and self-criticism (SC), two related but distinct traits, could well be crucial vulnerability factors.Hypotheses: After exposure to criticism during fMRI scanning, rapid changes in amygdalar functional connectivity (FC) with other brain areas involved in emotion regulation and social cognitive processing will occur. These changes will depend on trait moderators, such as the adolescents' proneness to (a) perceive others as critical of them (PC) or (b) perceive themselves positively or negatively (SC).Methods: Sixty-four healthy 14–17-year-olds were exposed to a series of auditory comments. Changes in mood states were assessed based on the Profile of Mood States (POMS) prior to and after exposure to these segments. Pre- and post-experiment FC of the left and right amygdalae with other brain areas were also measured. Correlates between FC changes and psychometric measures—including the perceived criticism measure (PCM) and self-perception profile for adolescents (SPPA)—were assessed.Results: First, after being criticized, FC increases of the left amygdala seed region with brain areas related to sustained emotional processing were found, but no right amygdalar FC changes. Second, there was a significant positive partial correlation between individual PCM scores and FC changes between the left amygdala seed region and the left precuneus and left superior parietal cortex, both part of the default mode network.Conclusion: Exposure to criticism resulted in a rapid negative mood change accompanied by an increase in FC between the left amygdala and regions known to be involved in sustained emotional processing, but no right amygdalar FC changes. Furthermore, higher PC but not SC was correlated with stronger left amygdalar FC increases with these regions, suggesting an elevated vulnerability for disturbed emotional processing, as observed in mood disorders, in healthy adolescents with higher PCM scores.

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent-child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent-child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers' (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and fullterm infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers' self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers' ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent-child relationship of parents with a preterm child.

BackgroundThe importance of the hippocampus and amygdala for disrupted emotional memory formation in depression is well-recognized, but it remains unclear whether functional abnormalities are state-dependent and whether they are affected by the persistence of depressive symptoms.MethodsThirty-nine patients with major depressive disorder and 28 healthy controls were included from the longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sub-study of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Participants performed an emotional word-encoding and -recognition task during fMRI at baseline and 2-year follow-up measurement. At baseline, all patients were in a depressed state. We investigated state-dependency by relating changes in brain activation over time to changes in symptom severity. Furthermore, the effect of time spent with depressive symptoms in the 2-year interval was investigated.ResultsSymptom change was linearly associated with higher activation over time of the left anterior hippocampus extending to the amygdala during positive and negative word-encoding. Especially during positive word encoding, this effect was driven by symptomatic improvement. There was no effect of time spent with depression in the 2-year interval on change in brain activation. Results were independent of medication- and psychotherapy-use.ConclusionUsing a longitudinal within-subjects design, we showed that hippocampal–amygdalar activation during emotional memory formation is related to depressive symptom severity but not persistence (i.e. time spent with depression or ‘load’), suggesting functional activation patterns in depression are not subject to functional ‘scarring’ although this hypothesis awaits future replication.

Infant signals, including infant sounds and facial expressions, play a critical role in eliciting parental proximity and care. Processing of infant signals in the adulthood brain is likely to recruit emotional empathy neural circuits, including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test the role of right IFG (rIFG) in behavioral responses to infant signals. Specifically, a group of nulliparous women were asked to perform a handgrip dynamometer task and an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) after receiving TMS over the right IFG or over a control site (vertex). Suppressing activity in the rIFG affected the modulation of handgrip force in response to infant crying. Moreover, the AAT showed that participants tend to avoid the sad infant face after Vertex stimulation, and this bias was counteracted by rIFG stimulation. Our results suggest a causal role of rIFG in sensitive responding towards sad infants and point to the rIFG as a critical node in the neural network underlying the innate releasing mechanism for feelings of love, affection and caring of sad infants.

Emotional speech is one of the principal forms of social communication in humans. In this study, we investigated neural processing of emotional speech (happy, angry, sad and neutral) in the left hemisphere of 21 two-month-old infants using diffuse optical tomography. Reconstructed total hemoglobin (HbT) images were analysed using adaptive voxel-based clustering and region-of-interest (ROI) analysis. We found a distributed happy > neutral response within the temporo-parietal cortex, peaking in the anterior temporal cortex; a negative HbT response to emotional speech (the average of the emotional speech conditions < baseline) in the temporo-parietal cortex, neutral > angry in the anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), happy > angry in the superior temporal gyrus and posterior superior temporal sulcus, angry < baseline in the insula, superior temporal sulcus and superior temporal gyrus and happy < baseline in the anterior insula. These results suggest that left STS is more sensitive to happy speech as compared to angry speech, indicating that it might play an important role in processing positive emotions in two-month-old infants. Furthermore, happy speech (relative to neutral) seems to elicit more activation in the temporo-parietal cortex, thereby suggesting enhanced sensitivity of temporo-parietal cortex to positive emotional stimuli at this stage of infant development.

Advances in computer and communications technology have deeply affected the way we communicate. Social media have emerged as a major means of human communication. However, a major limitation in such media is the lack of non-verbal stimuli, which sometimes hinders the understanding of the message, and in particular the associated emotional content. In an effort to compensate for this, people started to use emoticons, which are combinations of keyboard characters that resemble facial expressions, and more recently their evolution: emojis, namely, small colorful images that resemble faces, actions and daily life objects. This paper presents evidence of the effect of emojis on memory retrieval through a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study. A total number of fifteen healthy volunteers were recruited for the experiment, during which successive stimuli were presented, containing words with intense emotional content combined with emojis, either with congruent or incongruent emotional content. Volunteers were asked to recall a memory related to the stimulus. The study of the reaction times showed that emotional incongruity among word+emoji combinations led to longer reaction times in memory retrieval compared to congruent combinations. General Linear Model (GLM) and Blind Source Separation (BSS) methods have been tested in assessing the influence of the emojis on the process of memory retrieval. The analysis of the fMRI data showed that emotional incongruity among word+emoji combinations activated the Broca's area (BA44 and BA45) in both hemispheres, the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) and the inferior prefrontal cortex (BA47), compared to congruent combinations. Furthermore, compared to pseudowords, word+emoji combinations activated the left Broca's area (BA44 and BA45), the amygdala, the right temporal pole (BA48) and several frontal regions including the SMA and the inferior prefrontal cortex. ispartof: PLoS One vol:15 issue:7 pages:e0234104- ispartof: location:United States status: Published online

Narratives surround us in our everyday life in different forms. In the sensory brain areas, the processing of narratives is dependent on the media of presentation, be that in audiovisual or written form. However, little is known of the brain areas that process complex narrative content mediated by various forms. To isolate these regions, we looked for the functional networks reacting in a similar manner to the same narrative content despite different media of presentation. We collected 3-T fMRI whole brain data from 31 healthy human adults during two separate runs when they were either viewing a movie or reading its screenplay text. The independent component analysis (ICA) was used to separate 40 components. By correlating the components’ time-courses between the two different media conditions, we could isolate 5 functional networks that particularly related to the same narrative content. These TOP-5 components with the highest correlation covered fronto-temporal, parietal, and occipital areas with no major involvement of primary visual or auditory cortices. Interestingly, the top-ranked network with highest modality-invariance also correlated negatively with the dialogue predictor, thus pinpointing that narrative comprehension entails processes that are not language-reliant. In summary, our novel experiment design provided new insight into narrative comprehension networks across modalities.

Monkey neurophysiology research supports the affordance competition hypothesis (ACH) proposing that cognitive information useful for action selection is integrated in sensorimotor areas. In this view, action selection would emerge from the simultaneous representation of competing action plans, in parallel biased by relevant task factors. This biased competition would take place up to primary motor cortex (M1). Although ACH is plausible in environments affording choices between actions, its relevance for human decision making is less clear. To address this issue, we designed an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment modeled after monkey neurophysiology studies in which human participants processed cues conveying predictive information about upcoming button presses. Our results demonstrate that, as predicted by the ACH, predictive information (i.e. the relevant task factor) biases activity of primary motor regions. Specifically, first, activity before movement onset in contralateral M1 increases as the competition is biased in favor of a specific button press relative to activity in ipsilateral M1. Second, motor regions were more tightly coupled with fronto-parietal regions when competition between potential actions was high, again suggesting that motor regions are also part of the biased competition network. Our findings support the idea that action planning dynamics as proposed in the ACH are valid both in human and non-human primates., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how consumer personality trait impulsiveness influences trustworthiness evaluations of online-offers with different trust-assuring and trust-reducing elements by measuring the brain activity of consumers. Shoppers with high degrees of impulsiveness are referred to as hedonic shoppers, and those with low degrees are referred to as prudent consumers. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the differences between neural processes in the brains of hedonic and prudent shoppers during the trustworthiness evaluation of online-offers, the present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and region-of-interest analysis to correlate neural activity patterns with behavioral measures of the study participants. Findings Drawing upon literature reviews on the neural correlates of both trust in online settings and consumer impulsiveness and using an experimental design that links behavioral and fMRI data, the study shows that consumer impulsiveness can exert a significant influence on the evaluation of online-offers. With regard to brain activation, both groups (hedonic and prudent shoppers) exhibit similar neural activation tendencies, but differences exist in the magnitude of activation patterns in brain regions that are closely related to trust and impulsiveness such as the dorsal striatum, anterior cingulate, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the insula cortex. Research limitations/implications The data provide evidence that consumers within the hedonic group evaluate online-offers differently with regard to their trustworthiness compared to the prudent group, and that these differences in evaluation are rooted in neural activation differences in the shoppers’ brains. Practical implications Marketers need to be made aware of the fact that neurological insights can be used for market segmentation, because consumers’ decision-making processes help explain behavioral outcomes (here, trustworthiness evaluations of online-offers). In addition, consumers can learn from an advanced understanding of their brain functions during decision-making and their relation to personal traits such as impulsiveness. Originality/value Considering the importance of trust in online shopping, as well as the fact that personality traits such as impulsiveness influence the purchase process to a high degree, this study is the first to systematically investigate the interplay of online trustworthiness perceptions and differences in consumer impulsiveness with neuroscientific methods.

People are more sensitive to losses than to equivalent gains when making financial decisions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to illuminate how the amygdala contributes to loss aversion. The blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response of the amygdala was mapped while healthy individuals were responding to 50/50 gambles with varying potential gain and loss amounts. Overall, subjects demanded twice as high potential gain as loss to accept a gamble. The individual level of loss aversion was expressed by the decision boundary, i.e., the gain-loss ratio at which subjects accepted and rejected gambles with equal probability. Amygdala activity increased the more the gain-loss ratio deviated from the individual decision boundary showing that the amygdala codes action value. This response pattern was more strongly expressed in loss aversive individuals, linking amygdala activity with individual differences in loss aversion. Together, the results show that the amygdala signals subjective appetitiveness or aversiveness of gain-loss ratios at the time of choice. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contains fulltext : 173853.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Anger and anger regulation problems that result in aggressive behaviour pose a serious problem for society. In this study we investigated differences in brain responses during anger provocation or anger engagement, as well as anger regulation or distraction from anger, and compared 16 male violent offenders to 18 non-offender controls. During an fMRI adapted provocation and regulation task participants were presented with angry, happy and neutral scenarios. Prior research on violent offenders indicates that a combination of increased limbic activity (involved in emotion), along with decreased prefrontal activity (involved in emotion regulation), is associated with reactive aggression. We found increased ventrolateral prefrontal activity during anger engagement in violent offenders, while decreased dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal activity was found during anger distraction. This activity pattern was specific for anger. We found no exclusive pattern for happiness. In violent offenders, this suggests an increased need to regulate specifically during anger engagement and regulation difficulties when explicitly instructed to distract. The constant effort required for violent offenders to regulate anger might exhaust the necessary cognitive resources, resulting in a risk for self-control failure. Consequently, continuous provocation might ultimately contribute to reactive aggression. 9 p.

‘Reward sensitivity’ explains inter-individual differences in the motivation to obtain rewards when reward cues are perceived. This psychobiological trait has been linked to higher consumption of palatable food when exposed to palatable food cues. The current study aims to examine if reward sensitivity explains differences in patterns of fat and lean tissue accretion over time in children. A longitudinal observational study with measurement waves in 2011 (baseline), 2012, 2013, and 2015 was conducted. The sample was a population-based Flemish cohort of children (n = 446, 50% boys and 5.5–12 years at baseline; 38.8% of the baseline sample also participated in 2015). Baseline reward sensitivity of the children was assessed by parent ratings on the Drive subscale of the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System scales. Age- and sex-independent Fat and Lean Mass Index z-scores (zFMI and zLMI respectively) were computed for each study wave based on air-displacement plethysmography. In girls, but not boys, reward sensitivity was positively associated with the baseline zFMI and zLMI (95% confidence intervals of unstandardized estimates: 0.01 to 0.11 and 0.01 to 0.10 respectively, P values 0.01 and 0.02 respectively). Further, reward sensitivity explained 14.8% and 11.6% of the change in girls' zFMI and zLMI respectively over four years: the zFMI and zLMI increased and decreased respectively in high reward sensitive girls (95% confidence intervals of unstandardized estimates: 0.01 to 0.11 and −0.12 to −0.01 respectively, P values 0.01 and 0.02 respectively). Hence, girls high in reward sensitivity had significantly higher adiposity gain over four years parallel with lower increase in lean mass than was expected on the basis of their age and height. These results may help to identify appropriate targets for interventions for obesity prevention.

Following the two-stage model of disgust, 'core disgust' (e.g. elicited by rotten food) is extended to stimuli that remind us of our animal nature 'AR disgust' (e.g. mutilations, animalistic instincts). There is ample evidence that core and AR represent distinct domains of disgust elicitors. Moreover, people show large differences in their tendency to respond with disgust to potential disgust elicitors (propensity), as well as in their appraisal of experiencing disgust (sensitivity). Thus these traits may be important moderators of people's response patterns. Here, we aimed to find brain mechanisms associated with these distinct disgust domains and traits, as well as the interaction between them. The right ventrolateral occipitotemporal cortex, which preferentially responded to visual AR, was functionally coupled to the middle cingulate cortex (MCC), thalamus and prefrontal cortex (medial, dorsolateral), as a function of disgust domain. Coupling with the anterior part of MCC was modulated by disgust 'propensity', which was strongest during AR. Coupling with anterior insula and ventral premotor cortex was weaker, but relied fully on this domain-trait interaction. Disgust 'sensitivity' modulated left anterior insula activity irrespective of domain, and did not affect functional connectivity. Thus a frontal-posterior network that interacts with disgust 'propensity' dissects AR and core disgust.

The brain activity of humans with tinnitus of various etiologies is typically studied with electro- and magneto-encephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging-based imaging techniques. Consequently, they measure population responses and mostly from the neocortex. The latter also underlies changes in neural networks that may be attributed to tinnitus. However, factors not strictly related to tinnitus such as hearing loss and hyperacusis, as well as other co-occurring disorders play a prominent role in these changes. Different types of tinnitus can often not be resolved with these brain-imaging techniques. In animal models of putative behavioral signs of tinnitus, neural activity ranging from auditory nerve to auditory cortex, is studied largely by single unit recordings, augmented by local field potentials (LFPs), and the neural correlates of tinnitus are mainly based on spontaneous neural activity, such as spontaneous firing rates and pair-wise spontaneous spike-firing correlations. Neural correlates of hyperacusis rely on measurement of stimulus-evoked activity and are measured as increased driven firing rates and LFP amplitudes. Connectivity studies would rely on correlated neural activity between pairs of neurons or LFP amplitudes, but are only recently explored. In animal models of tinnitus, only two etiologies are extensively studied; tinnitus evoked by salicylate application and by noise exposure. It appears that they have quite different neural biomarkers. The unanswered question then is: does this different etiology also result in different tinnitus?

Highlights ► We describe a method to measure neural responses to noxious stimulation in infants. ► Multi-modal recordings (EEG, EMG, ECG, NIRS) are synchronised within this method. ► The method meets ethical and safety standards. ► The method incorporates a novel event-locking interface to a disposable medical device. ► We have successfully used the method on more than 100 test occasions., A non-invasive integrated method was developed to measure neural and behavioural responses to peripheral sensory and noxious stimulation in human infants. The introduction of a novel event-detection interface allows synchronous recording of: (i) muscle and central nervous system activity with surface electromyography (EMG), scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS); (ii) behavioural responses with video-recording and (iii) autonomic responses (heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate and cardiovascular activity) with electrocardiography (ECG) and pulse oximetry. The system can detect noxious heel lance and touch stimuli with precision (33 μs and 624 μs respectively) and accuracy (523 μs and 256 μs) and has 100% sensitivity and specificity for both types of stimulation. Its ability to detect response latencies accurately was demonstrated by a shift in latency of the vertex potential of 20.7 ± 15.7 ms (n = 6 infants), following touch of the heel and of the shoulder, reflecting the distance between the two sites. This integrated system has provided reliable and reproducible measurements of responses to sensory and noxious stimulation in human infants on more than 100 test occasions.

Pain can be modulated by several cognitive techniques, typically involving increased cognitive control and decreased sensory processing. Recently, it has been demonstrated that pain can also be attenuated by mindfulness. Here, we investigate the underlying brain mechanisms by which the state of mindfulness reduces pain. Mindfulness practitioners and controls received unpleasant electric stimuli in the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner during a mindfulness and a control condition. Mindfulness practitioners, but not controls, were able to reduce pain unpleasantness by 22% and anticipatory anxiety by 29% during a mindful state. In the brain, this reduction was associated with decreased activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex and increased activation in the right posterior insula during stimulation and increased rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation during the anticipation of pain. These findings reveal a unique mechanism of pain modulation, comprising increased sensory processing and decreased cognitive control, and are in sharp contrast to established pain modulation mechanisms.

Food choices constitute a classic self-control dilemma involving the trade-off between immediate eating enjoyment and the long term goal of being slim and healthy, especially for weight-concerned women. For them, decision-making concerning high (HE) and low energy (LE) snacks differs when it comes to the need for self-control. In line, our first study aim was to investigate which brain regions are activated during food choices during HE compared to LE energy snacks in weight-concerned women. Since it is particularly difficult to resist HE snacks when they are very tasty, our second aim was to investigate in which brain regions choice-related activation varies with the food's tastiness. Our third aim was to assess in which brain regions choice-related activation varies with individual differences in self-regulatory success. To this end, 20 weight-concerned women indicated for 100 HE or LE snacks whether they wanted to eat them or not, while their brains were scanned using fMRI. HE snacks were refused more often than equally-liked LE snacks. HE snack choice elicited stronger activation in reward-related brain regions [medial to middle orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), caudate]. Highly tasty HE snacks were more difficult to resist and, accordingly, activation in inhibitory areas (inferior frontal gyrus, lateral OFC) was negatively associated with tastiness. More successful self-controllers showed increased activation in the supplementary motor area during HE food choices. In sum, the results suggest that HE snacks constitute a higher reward for weight-concerned women compared to (equally-liked) LE snacks, and that activation during food choice in brain regions involved in response inhibition varied with tastiness and individual differences in self-regulatory success. These findings advance our understanding of the neural correlates of food choice and point to new avenues for investigating explanations for self-regulatory failure.

Sir, We thank Gillespie et al. (2014) for their letter. They summarize data that suggest that in autism, vicarious activations can be relatively normal under instructions explicitly encouraging vicarious processes, while being abnormal in conditions in which instructions do not. This points to an important opportunity to improve our understanding of empathy—both with regards to deficits in patients and individual differences in the normal population. To date, the ‘cake’ called empathy has been cut in various ways. Some cut it in two pieces, cognitive versus emotional empathy (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004), acknowledging that somewhat separate systems support the capacity to think what another is thinking (cognitive empathy) and to feel what another is feeling (emotional empathy). This has influenced our thinking about individual variability in empathy and psychiatric disorders, with some disorders, like autism, thought to be impaired more in cognitive empathy whereas others, like psychopathy, are impaired more in emotional empathy (Blair, 2005). Based on neuroscience, we have ‘cut’ empathy into four pieces: motor, emotional, tactile and cognitive empathy (Keysers and Gazzola, 2009). Mirror neurons in motor cortices and functional MRI activations in motor cortices during action observation suggest motor empathy: vicariously activating one’s own actions while witnessing the actions of others (Gallese et al. , 1996; Gazzola and Keysers, 2009; Keysers, 2009; Caspers et al. , 2010). Later, neuroimaging data showed that one also vicariously activate neural substrates involved in one’s own disgust (Wicker et al. , 2003) and pain (Lamm et al. , 2011) while witnessing the disgust or pain of others, suggesting emotional empathy. Somatosensory brain regions were also found to be vicariously active when viewing the tactile and haptic sensations of others, suggesting somatosensory empathy (Keysers et al. , 2004, 2010; Gazzola and Keysers, 2009; Caspers et al. , …

In the context of chronic childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM; emotional abuse and/or neglect), adequately responding to facial expressions is an important skill. Over time, however, this adaptive response may lead to a persistent vigilance for emotional facial expressions. The amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are key regions in face processing. However, the neurobiological correlates of face processing in adults reporting CEM are yet unknown. We examined amydala and mPFC reactivity to emotional faces (Angry, Fearful, Sad, Happy, Neutral) vs scrambled faces in healthy controls and unmedicated patients with depression and/or anxiety disorders reporting CEM before the age of 16 years (n=60), and controls and patients who report no childhood abuse (n=75). We found that CEM was associated with enhanced bilateral amygdala reactivity to emotional faces in general, and independent of psychiatric status. Furthermore, we found no support for differential mPFC functioning, suggesting that amygdala hyper-responsivity to emotional facial perception in adults reporting CEM may be independent from top-down influences of the mPFC. These findings may be key in understanding the increased emotional sensitivity and interpersonal difficulties, that have been reported in individuals with a history of CEM.© The Author (2012). Published by Oxford University Press.

Our visual percepts are not fully determined by physical stimulus inputs. Thus, in visual illusions such as the Kanizsa figure, inducers presented at the corners allow one to perceive the bounding contours of the figure in the absence of luminance-defined borders. We examined the discrimination of the curvature of these illusory contours that pass across retinal scotomas caused by macular degeneration. In contrast with previous studies with normal-sighted subjects that showed no perception of these illusory contours in the region of physiological scotomas at the optic nerve head, we demonstrated perfect discrimination of the curvature of the illusory contours over the pathological retinal scotoma. The illusion occurred despite the large scar around the macular lesion, strongly reducing discrimination of whether the inducer openings were acute or obtuse and suggesting that the coarse information in the inducers (low spatial frequency) sufficed. The result that subjective contours can pass through the pathological retinal scotoma suggests that the visual cortex, despite the loss of bottom-up input, can use low-spatial frequency information from the inducers to form a neural representation of new complex geometrical shapes inside the scotoma.

Background The right hemisphere may play an important role in paralinguistic features such as the emotional melody in speech. The extent of this involvement however is unclear. Imaging studies have shown involvement of both left and right inferior frontal gyri in emotional prosody perception. The present pilot study examined whether these brain areas are critically involved in the processing of emotional prosody and of semantics in 9 healthy subjects. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was used with a coil centred over left and right inferior frontal gyri, as localized by neuronavigation based on the subject's MRI. A sham condition was included. An online-TMS approach was applied; an emotional language task was completed during stimulation. This computerized task consisted of sentences pronounced by actors. In the semantics condition an emotion (fear, anger or neutral) was expressed in the content pronounced with a neutral intonation. In the prosody condition the emotion was expressed in the intonation, while the content was neutral. Results Reaction times on the emotional prosody task condition were significantly longer after rTMS over both the right and the left inferior frontal gyrus as compared to sham stimulation and after controlling for learning effects associated with order of condition. When taking all emotions together, there was no difference in effect on reaction times between the right and left stimulation. For the emotion Fear, reaction times were significantly longer after stimulating the left inferior frontal gyrus as compared to the right inferior frontal gyrus. Reaction times in the semantics task condition were not significantly different between the three TMS conditions. Conclusions The data indicate a critical involvement of both the right and the left inferior frontal gyrus in emotional prosody perception. The findings of this pilot study need replication. Future studies should include more subjects and examine whether the left and right inferior frontal gyrus play a differential role and complement each other, e.g. in the integrated processing of linguistic and prosodic aspects of speech, respectively.

In verbal communication, not only the meaning of the words convey information, but also the tone of voice (prosody) conveys crucial information about the emotional state and intentions of others. In various studies right frontal and right temporal regions have been found to play a role in emotional prosody perception. Here, we used triple-pulse repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to shed light on the precise time course of involvement of the right anterior superior temporal gyrus and the right fronto-parietal operculum. We hypothesized that information would be processed in the right anterior superior temporal gyrus before being processed in the right fronto-parietal operculum. Right-handed healthy subjects performed an emotional prosody task. During listening to each sentence a triplet of TMS pulses was applied to one of the regions at one of six time points (400-1900 ms). Results showed a significant main effect of Time for right anterior superior temporal gyrus and right fronto-parietal operculum. The largest interference was observed half-way through the sentence. This effect was stronger for withdrawal emotions than for the approach emotion. A further experiment with the inclusion of an active control condition, TMS over the EEG site POz (midline parietal-occipital junction), revealed stronger effects at the fronto-parietal operculum and anterior superior temporal gyrus relative to the active control condition. No evidence was found for sequential processing of emotional prosodic information from right anterior superior temporal gyrus to the right fronto-parietal operculum, but the results revealed more parallel processing. Our results suggest that both right fronto-parietal operculum and right anterior superior temporal gyrus are critical for emotional prosody perception at a relatively late time period after sentence onset. This may reflect that emotional cues can still be ambiguous at the beginning of sentences, but become more apparent half-way through the sentence.

The amygdala has been considered to be essential for recognizing fear in other people's facial expressions. Recent studies shed doubt on this interpretation. Here we used movies of facial expressions instead of static photographs to investigate the putative fear selectivity of the amygdala using fMRI under more ecological conditions. The amygdala was found to respond more to movies of facial expressions than to pattern motion, but no differences were found between the responses to neutral, happy, disgusted and fearful facial expressions. This lack of emotional selectivity was replicated in three experiments using three different tasks (passive observation, delayed match to sample and viewing for imitation) and two different analysis methods (voxel-by-voxel and anatomical region of interest). Our data therefore provide strong support for the idea that under more ecologically valid conditions, the contribution of the amygdala towards the detection of fearful facial expressions must be more indirect than previously assumed.

Contains fulltext : 55984.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Functional neuroimaging research in humans has identified a number of brain areas that are activated by the delivery of primary and secondary reinforcers. The present study investigated how activity in these reward-sensitive regions is modulated by the context in which rewards and punishments are experienced. Fourteen healthy volunteers were scanned during the performance of a simple monetary gambling task that involved a "win" condition (in which the possible outcomes were a large monetary gain, a small gain, or no gain of money) and a "lose" condition (in which the possible outcomes were a large monetary loss, a small loss, or no loss of money). We observed reward-sensitive activity in a number of brain areas previously implicated in reward processing, including the striatum, prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and inferior parietal lobule. Critically, activity in these reward-sensitive areas was highly sensitive to the range of possible outcomes from which an outcome was selected. In particular, these regions were activated to a comparable degree by the best outcomes in each condition-a large gain in the win condition and no loss of money in the lose condition-despite the large difference in the objective value of these outcomes. In addition, some reward-sensitive brain areas showed a binary instead of graded sensitivity to the magnitude of the outcomes from each distribution. These results provide important evidence regarding the way in which the brain scales the motivational value of events by the context in which these events occur.

Mobile phones emit a pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field (PEMF) which may penetrate the scalp and the skull. Increasingly, there is an interest in the interaction of this pulsed microwave radiation with the human brain. Our investigations show that these electromagnetic fields alter distinct aspects of the brain's electrical response to acoustic stimuli. More precisely, our results demonstrate that aspects of the induced but not the evoked brain activity during PEMF exposure can be different from those not influenced by PEMF radiation. This effect appears in higher frequency bands when subjects process task-relevant target stimuli but was not present for irrelevant standard stimuli. As the induced brain activity in higher frequency bands has been proposed to be a correlate of coherent high-frequency neuronal activity, PEMF exposure may provide means for systematically alter the pattern fluctuations in neural mass activity.

Background: The affective personality trait 'harm avoidance' (HA) from Cloninger's psychobiological personality model determines how an individual deals with emotional stimuli. Emotional stimuli are processed by a neural network that include the left and right amygdalae as important key nodes. Explicit, implicit and passive processing of affective stimuli are known to activate the amygdalae differently reflecting differences in attention, level of detailed analysis of the stimuli and the cognitive control needed to perform the required task. Previous studies revealed that implicit processing or passive viewing of affective stimuli, induce a left amygdala response that correlates with HA. In this new study we have tried to extend these findings to the situation in which the subjects were required to explicitly process emotional stimuli. Methods: A group of healthy female participants was asked to rate the valence of positive and negative stimuli while undergoing fMRI. Afterwards the neural responses of the participants to the positive and to the negative stimuli were separately correlated to their HA scores and compared between the low and high HA participants. Results: Both analyses revealed increased neural activity in the left laterobasal (LB) amygdala of the high HA participants while they were rating the positive and the negative stimuli. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the left amygdala response to explicit processing of affective stimuli does correlate with HA.