Neuroscience 2004 Abstract
| Presentation Number: | 80.19 |
|---|---|
| Abstract Title: | The neural responses to emotional words as a function of their frequency: An event-related fMRI design. |
| Authors: |
Nakic, M.*1
; Smith, B.1
; Busis, S.1
; Blair, J.1
1Unit of Affective Cog Neurosci, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD |
| Primary Theme and Topics |
Cognition and Behavior - Human Cognition, Behavior, and Anatomy -- Language |
| Session: |
80. Language I Poster |
| Presentation Time: | Saturday, October 23, 2004 3:00 PM-4:00 PM |
| Location: | San Diego Convention Center - Hall A-H, Board # EE18 |
| Keywords: |
Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate the impact of frequency and level of emotional salience on the neural response to word stimuli in the context of a lexical decision task. The participants were presented with a pseudo-randomly ordered sequence of high- and low- frequency neutral and emotional (high negative, low negative and neutral) words obtained from the MRC Psycholinguistic Database, and an equal number of pronounceable non-words, derived from the word stimuli by randomly exchanging one letter. The MRI data were analyzed using the Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging (AFNI) software and consisted of both individual and group level-analyses. Reaction times were greater for lexical decisions involving the low frequency words. Low frequency words, successfully recognized as words, were associated with greater activation in bilateral inferior frontal cortex, left superior frontal gyrus, and insula. We suggest that greater dorsolateral prefrontal activation may be necessary to enhance the temporal cortical word representation and allow a decision. We also predicted that emotional words are conditioned stimuli and as such should be associated with a neural response appropriate to their level of emotional salience (i.e., we expected activation of the amygdala, posterior cingulate, and medial frontal cortical activation, the network consistently activated by a variety of emotional stimuli). The main effect of emotion indeed revealed activation in the amygdala, insula, anterior and posterior cingulate, temporal, and prefrontal cortex. We believe that the facilitation effect found behaviorally during lexical decision for emotional word stimuli reflects an augmentation of the representation of the word in temporal cortex as a result of reciprocal activation from the amygdala.
Sample Citation:
[Authors]. [Abstract Title]. Program No. XXX.XX. 2004 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. San Diego, CA: Society for Neuroscience, 2004. Online.
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