Dataset Information

Interactions between emotion and action in the brain.

ABSTRACT: A growing literature supports the existence of interactions between emotion and action in the brain, and the central participation of the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) in this regard. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we sought to investigate the role of self-relevance during such interactions by varying the context in which threating pictures were presented (with guns pointed towards or away from the observer). Participants performed a simple visual detection task following exposure to such stimuli. Except for voxelwise tests, we adopted a Bayesian analysis framework which evaluated evidence for the hypotheses of interest, given the data, in a continuous fashion. Behaviorally, our results demonstrated a valence by context interaction such that there was a tendency of speeding up responses to targets after viewing threat pictures directed towards the participant. In the brain, interaction patterns that paralleled those observed behaviorally were observed most notably in the middle temporal gyrus, supplementary motor area, precentral gyrus, and anterior insula. In these regions, activity was overall greater during threat conditions relative to neutral ones, and this effect was enhanced in the directed towards context. A valence by context interaction was observed in the aMCC too, where we also observed a correlation (across participants) of evoked responses and reaction time data. Taken together, our study revealed the context-sensitive engagement of motor-related areas during emotional perception, thus supporting the idea that emotion and action interact in important ways in the brain.

SUBMITTER: Lima Portugal LC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7485650 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Neuroimaging and neuropsychological experiments suggest that modality-preferential cortices, including motor- and somatosensory areas, contribute to the semantic processing of action related concrete words. Still, a possible role of sensorimotor areas in processing abstract meaning remains under debate. Recent fMRI studies indicate an involvement of the left sensorimotor cortex in the processing of abstract-emotional words (e.g., "love") which resembles activation patterns seen for action words. But are the activated areas indeed necessary for processing action-related and abstract words? The current study now investigates word processing in two patients suffering from focal brain lesion in the left frontocentral motor system. A speeded Lexical Decision Task on meticulously matched word groups showed that the recognition of nouns from different semantic categories - related to food, animals, tools, and abstract-emotional concepts - was differentially affected. Whereas patient HS with a lesion in dorsolateral central sensorimotor systems next to the hand area showed a category-specific deficit in recognizing tool words, patient CA suffering from lesion centered in the left supplementary motor area was primarily impaired in abstract-emotional word processing. These results point to a causal role of the motor cortex in the semantic processing of both action-related object concepts and abstract-emotional concepts and therefore suggest that the motor areas previously found active in action-related and abstract word processing can serve a meaning-specific necessary role in word recognition. The category-specific nature of the observed dissociations is difficult to reconcile with the idea that sensorimotor systems are somehow peripheral or 'epiphenomenal' to meaning and concept processing. Rather, our results are consistent with the claim that cognition is grounded in action and perception and based on distributed action perception circuits reaching into modality-preferential cortex.

Project description:The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an evolutionary conserved tissue interface that possesses potent chemical protection properties functioning to strictly modulate the central nervous system (CNS) microenvironment. These same properties, including tight cellular junctions and efflux transporters, also limit access of CNS-active pharmaceuticals. For this reason, understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate BBB chemical protection is of great biomedical interest. The BBB of Drosophila consists of two surface glia layers that completely surround the brain. This tissue interface contains both “tight” cellular junctions (termed septate junctions) and drug efflux transporters; thus, the Drosophila BBB can potentially serve as a model for understanding complex regulation of BBB physiology. In this study, we show reciprocal compensatory responses following disruption of critical BBB genes: deletion of the septate junction regulator Moody causes increased drug efflux and up-regulation of the P-glycoprotein ortholog Mdr65; conversely, disruption of Mdr65 expression causes increased septate junction tightness and up-regulation of Moody. We reveal these homeostatic interactions with physiologic observations, gene expression data, and anatomical images of the BBB surface. Whole brain microarray data point to responses that are consistent with our physiologic observations and these responses are likely localized to the BBB. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of a reciprocal compensatory interaction at a tissue barrier. Furthermore, this study paves the way for future studies elucidating the direct pathways that link GPCR signaling and drug transporter regulation at the BBB. The main comparisons are between WT_new, C17 (Moody null), and PMdr65 (Mdr65 null). Since WT_new were processed on a different day than C17 and PMdr65, we also included another WT sample (WT_old) to control for genes that change depending on batch effects. Since the mutants are also in a different genetic background than WT, we also included a control that is in a similar background (UAS_control).

Dataset Information

Interactions between emotion and action in the brain.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets