Abstract
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural activation associated with anticipations of emotional pictures by comparing findings obtained under negative and positive anticipation conditions. While being scanned with fMRI, healthy participants (n = 18) were cued to anticipate and then perceive emotional stimuli having predictable emotional valences (positive and negative). In some cases the subjects could accurately predict the emotional valance of the following stimuli based on the preceding cues, while in other cases, the cues were useless for making such predictions. During the anticipation of negative pictures, activities of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, amygdala, thalamus, and visual cortex were enhanced, relative to the activity levels in those regions under the positive anticipation condition. This result suggests that these brain regions are involved in anticipation of negative images. Furthermore, path analysis demonstrated that activation of the amygdala influenced the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex via the anterior cingulate cortex. This finding suggests that anticipatory activation of the limbic system may facilitate preparatory processes in the prefrontal cortex. (Japanese Journal of Physiological Psychology and Psychophysiology, 26 (3) : 229-235, 2008.)
