Multiple Mechanisms of Consciousness: The Neural Correlates of Emotional Awareness
Multiple Mechanisms of Consciousness: The Neural Correlates of Emotional Awareness
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.6434-09.2010
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发表时间：
2010-07-28
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Mitchell, Derek G. V.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Amting, Jayna M.;Greening, Steven G.;Mitchell, Derek G. V.
人们认为，包括面部表情在内的情绪刺激可以快速且优先地访问大脑中的处理资源。尽管有这种途径，我们只能意识到我们每天面临的无数与情绪相关的线索的一小部分。因此，目前尚不清楚与情绪表征相关的神经区域的活动与情绪意识的现象学体验之间的关系。我们使用功能磁共振成像和双眼竞争来描绘人类冲突情绪表达意识的神经关联。从行为上看，恐惧的面孔比厌恶或中性的面孔更容易被察觉。从功能上讲，在情绪意识期间，与面部表情处理相关的区域（包括杏仁核和梭状回）观察到活动增加。相比之下，对中性面孔的认识和对恐惧面孔的抑制与背外侧前额叶和顶下皮质活动的增加有关。在恐惧意识期间，杏仁核与腹侧视觉系统区域的功能连接增加，而当恐惧被抑制时，杏仁核与膝周前额叶皮层（pgPFC；布罗德曼区 32/10）的连接增加。尽管情绪项目优先考虑意识，但情绪项目与对意识至关重要的区域的活动减少有关。自下而上和自上而下的神经区域对意识的贡献可能是相加的，因此扩展腹侧视觉系统内专门区域的活动增加可能会减少对对意识很重要的额顶叶系统的需求。有人提出，前额叶皮层和杏仁核之间的相互作用（之前与灭绝有关）也可能影响意识是否能接受情绪刺激。
Emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, are thought to gain rapid and privileged access to processing resources in the brain. Despite this access, we are conscious of only a fraction of the myriad of emotion-related cues we face everyday. It remains unclear, therefore, what the relationship is between activity in neural regions associated with emotional representation and the phenomenological experience of emotional awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and binocular rivalry to delineate the neural correlates of awareness of conflicting emotional expressions in humans. Behaviorally, fearful faces were significantly more likely to be perceived than disgusted or neutral faces. Functionally, increased activity was observed in regions associated with facial expression processing, including the amygdala and fusiform gyrus during emotional awareness. In contrast, awareness of neutral faces and suppression of fearful faces were associated with increased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal cortices. The amygdala showed increased functional connectivity with ventral visual system regions during fear awareness and increased connectivity with perigenual prefrontal cortex (pgPFC; Brodmann's area 32/10) when fear was suppressed. Despite being prioritized for awareness, emotional items were associated with reduced activity in areas considered critical for consciousness. Contributions to consciousness from bottom-up and top-down neural regions may be additive, such that increased activity in specialized regions within the extended ventral visual system may reduce demands on a frontoparietal system important for awareness. The possibility is raised that interactions between pgPFC and the amygdala, previously implicated in extinction, may also influence whether or not an emotional stimulus is accessible to consciousness.