Emotionotopy in the human right temporo-parietal cortex
Emotionotopy in the human right temporo-parietal cortex
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DOI：
10.1038/s41467-019-13599-z
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发表时间：
2019-12-05
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Cecchetti, Luca
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lettieri, Giada;Handjaras, Giacomo;Cecchetti, Luca
人类利用情感来解读内部事件的复杂级联。然而，情感状态描述与大脑活动之间的联系机制尚不清楚，有证据支持局部处理或分布式处理。梯度的概念提供了一个生物学上有利的选择，它假设刺激特征的功能表征和皮层距离之间的同构性。在这里，我们使用由充满情感的电影引起的fMRI活动和对感知到的情感强度的连续评级来揭示情感状态的地形组织。结果表明，三个正交且空间重叠的梯度编码了右侧颞顶叶区域情绪体验的极性、复杂性和强度。这些梯度的空间排列使大脑能够在单个皮质区域内绘制出各种情感状态。由于这种组织类似于感觉区域代表心理物理特性的方式（例如，视网膜切除），我们提出情感切除作为情感编码的原则。
Humans use emotions to decipher complex cascades of internal events. However, which mechanisms link descriptions of affective states to brain activity is unclear, with evidence supporting either local or distributed processing. A biologically favorable alternative is provided by the notion of gradient, which postulates the isomorphism between functional representations of stimulus features and cortical distance. Here, we use fMRI activity evoked by an emotionally charged movie and continuous ratings of the perceived emotion intensity to reveal the topographic organization of affective states. Results show that three orthogonal and spatially overlapping gradients encode the polarity, complexity and intensity of emotional experiences in right temporo-parietal territories. The spatial arrangement of these gradients allows the brain to map a variety of affective states within a single patch of cortex. As this organization resembles how sensory regions represent psychophysical properties (e.g., retinotopy), we propose emotionotopy as a principle of emotion coding.