Neuroscience 2005 Abstract
| Presentation Number: | 193.7 |
|---|---|
| Abstract Title: | Amygdala activation in affective priming: an MEG study. |
| Authors: |
Munoz, K. E.*1
; Garolera, M.1
; Goldberg, T. E.1
; Elvevåg, B.1
; Carver, F. W.2
; Zoltick, B. J.1
; Weinberger, D. R.1
; Coppola, R.1,2
1Clinical Brain Disorders Branch: Genes, Cognition, and Psychosis Program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 2MEG Core Facility, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD |
| Primary Theme and Topics |
Cognition and Behavior - Human Cognition, Behavior, and Anatomy -- Emotion |
| Session: |
193. Emotion I Poster |
| Presentation Time: | Sunday, November 13, 2005 10:00 AM-11:00 AM |
| Location: | Washington Convention Center - Hall A-C, Board # KK9 |
| Keywords: | MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY, EMOTION, THETA, TIMING |
The amygdaloid complex in the medial temporal cortex has been considered a central structure involving fear mechanisms. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is appropriate for studying emotional processing because of its good spatial resolution and exceptional temporal resolution. Synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM), an adaptive beamformer technique used in the analysis of MEG data, allows the identification of power changes in specific frequency bands evoked by stimuli. Affective priming is a useful emotional verbal paradigm that emphasizes automatic processing. The main objective of the present investigation was to characterize amygdala MEG signals during performance on a linguistic affective priming task. Eight healthy volunteers (4 females, 4 males) were presented with a word-word paradigm involving emotional decision-making. We focused our analysis on 60 affectively congruent prime-target word pairs (30 negative, 30 positive). Using SAM, we analyzed the task activation differences between these two groups. These data show a differential activation of the left amygdala in the theta (5-8Hz) frequency band in the negative condition when compared to the positive. Additionally, a sliding window analysis was performed to enhance temporal resolution of theta band amygdala activation. Results demonstrated that the amygdala displayed a time-dependent intensification in response to negative stimuli, between 150 to 400 ms after the target presentation. These results indicate that theta power changes in the amygdala may be related to negative emotions, confirming that analyses of brain oscillations provide a powerful tool for examining the mechanisms involved in emotional processing.
Sample Citation:
[Authors]. [Abstract Title]. Program No. XXX.XX. 2005 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, 2005. Online.
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