FMRI STUDIES OF EMOTION AND MOVEMENT

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objective of the applicant is to develop a deep understanding of how emotion and motor systems interact at the behavioral, neurobiological, and neurochemical level in the human brain. Recent evidence from studies in non-human primates identifies two integrative mechanisms that allow emotion and motor information to be transferred across parallel cortico-striatal-cortico loops. Specific nuclei within the affective loop (thalamus) and motor loop (substantia nigra) are key components of these integrative mechanisms. Building on the prior work of the applicant the current proposal will, for the first time, test hypotheses derived from these integrative models in the human brain using precise experimental design and state of the art functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 Tesla. The proposal will determine how force production alters neuronal activity in regions that process emotional information (i.e., affective loop) and how emotional processing alters neuronal activity in regions that process motor information (i.e., motor loop). The proposed studies will measure blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal change and isometric force output from human subjects while they passively view emotional and neutral images and while they view emotional and neutral images while generating force. The experiments will examine four hypotheses in two specific aims. Aim la tests the hypothesis that viewing emotional images increases activity within all affective loop nuclei. Aim Ib tests the hypothesis that the dorsomedial thalamus will show increased BOLD signal when emotion and motor processes are paired together. Aim 2a tests the hypothesis that force production increases activity within all motor loop nuclei. Aim 2b tests the hypothesis that the substantia nigra will show increased BOLD signal when emotion and motor processes are paired together. Findings generated from this proposal will motivate the next phase of the applicant's long term objective which will be to understand how surgical (deep brain stimulation) and pharmacological (dopamine) interventions alter the functioning of these integrative mechanisms in clinical populations with co-morbid emotional and motor abnormalities (bipolar disorder, Parkinson's disease). Emotional disorders can present with motor deficits, and motor disorders of the basal ganglia can present with emotional deficits. The mechanism in the human brain that integrates emotion and movement remains largely unknown. Understanding the neural circuits that integrate emotion and motor processes will inform interventions that seek to regulate and facilitate emotional and/or motor function.