NEURAL CORRELATES OF EMOTION & REGULATION IN ADULT VOLUNTEERS

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心机构，不一定为研究者机构。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）技术的发展通过在空间和时间上分离与特定过程相关的大脑活动（如情绪加工及其调节），彻底改变了人类认知的研究。功能磁共振成像研究已经确定了几个涉及情绪处理的大脑区域，包括杏仁核和前扣带皮层（ACC）。前扣带回和其他额叶区域调节杏仁核的激活，额叶皮层的功能缺陷与异常的情绪控制有关。然而，情绪处理和调节的动力学尚未在认知处理术语中完全指定的方式进行检查。例如，重新评价任务，要求受试者自愿减弱或增强强度的负面照片使用认知重构策略的反应，是非常容易受到主观差异的指示和认知策略的解释。此外，该任务中的控制过程所需的时间相对较长。这些局限性对解释临床人群和对照组之间激活的显著差异产生了特别的影响，并强调了使用fMRI研究情绪及其调节的认知任务的不断发展和改进的必要性。 功能磁共振成像实验的认知任务的开发涉及一系列漫长而严格的步骤。在设计、编程、测试、校准和重新测试任务之前，需要识别和操作性地定义所研究的认知过程。然后，必须在规范样本中验证任务，以确保所研究的认知过程实际上是按设计测量的。最后，认知神经科学任务必须在MRI扫描仪中对健康志愿者进行测试，然后才能用于临床人群。因此，任务发展的过程是使用功能磁共振成像研究人类认知功能的一个主要限速因素。 我们开发了一个新的任务，称为面部情绪任务，以客观和动态地测试情绪处理和调节。该任务以两张具有相同或不同情绪表情的面孔为被试，以第一张面孔为被试，以第二张面孔为被试。面孔的情绪启动既可以增强目标的情绪加工（在一致条件下），也可以干扰目标的情绪加工（在不一致条件下，有进一步的调节要求）。 这些影响可以通过反应时间差异和大脑激活模式来衡量。为了测试识别记忆，先前显示的和新的面孔都将在最后一次会话中使用。这项任务可以与功能磁共振成像结合使用，以研究与以下相关的神经回路：1）面部和情绪处理; 2）情绪内容和情绪调节的相互作用; 3）情绪处理的自动与控制组件; 4）情景面部和情绪记忆的编码和检索。这些都是重要的认知过程，与各种精神疾病有关。EFP任务目前正在大学生样本中进行验证，并将用于抑郁症患者焦虑障碍的研究。 假设：（1）当目标面孔前面有一个具有相同情绪的启动面孔（一致条件）时，被试的反应比具有不同情绪的启动面孔（不一致条件）或非面孔对象图像（中性条件）更快。(2)恐惧的面孔，无论是作为启动还是目标，都会产生杏仁核的强烈激活。(3)情感冲突（即，不一致与一致条件）将激活ACC和前额叶皮层（PFC）。(4)内侧额叶区域（包括ACC和腹内侧PFC）和杏仁核的激活之间存在相互关系：杏仁核的较低激活将与ACC和腹内侧PFC的较大激活相关联，这两个区域参与执行控制以抑制杏仁核活动。(5)在任务的面部识别阶段，新显示的面部也会产生杏仁核和梭状脸区（FFA）的强大激活。 (6)在人脸识别阶段对人脸的检索将产生海马体的鲁棒激活。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques has revolutionized the study of human cognition by spatially and temporally isolating brain activity related to specific processes, such as emotional processing and its regulation. Research with fMRI has already identified several brain regions involved in the processing of emotions, including the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC and other frontal areas modulate the activation of the amygdala, and functional deficits of the frontal cortex have been related to abnormal emotion control. However the dynamics of emotional processing and regulation have not been examined in a manner that is fully specified in cognitive processing terms. For example, the reappraisal task, which requires subjects to voluntarily attenuate or enhance the intensity of responses to negative photos using cognitive reframing strategies, is highly susceptible to subjective differences in the interpretation of instructions and the cognitive strategies employed. In addition, the time required for the control process in this task has to be relatively long. These limitations have particular impact on the interpretation of significant differences in activation between clinical populations and controls, and highlight the constant need for development and improvement of the cognitive task for research on emotion and its regulation using fMRI. The development of cognitive tasks for fMRI experiments involves a long and regimented series of steps. The cognitive process under study needs to be identified and operationally defined before the task can be designed, programmed, tested, calibrated, and re-tested. The task must then be validated in a normative sample to ensure that the cognitive process under investigation is actually measured as designed. Finally, the cognitive neuroscience task must be tested in the MRI scanner with healthy volunteers before it can be used in clinical populations. As such, the process of task development is a major rate-limiting factor in using fMRI to study cognitive function in humans. We have developed a new task called the Face Emotion Task to objectively and dynamically test emotional processing and regulation. This task displays two faces with the same or different emotion expressions one after the other, with the first face as the prime and the second face as the target. The emotional priming with faces either enhances (in the congruent condition) or interferes with (in the incongruent condition, which has a further regulatory demand) the emotional processing of the target. These effects can be measured in both reaction time differences and brain activation patterns. To test recognition memory, previously displayed and new faces will both be used in the last session. This task can be used in conjunction with fMRI to study the neural circuitry related to: 1) facial and emotional processing; 2) the interaction of emotional content and emotional regulation; 3) automatic versus controlled components of emotional processing; 4) encoding and retrieval of episodic facial and emotional memory. These are all important cognitive processes that have been implicated in a variety of psychiatric disorders. The EFP task is currently being validated in a sample of college students and will be used in a study on anxiety disorder in patients with depression. Hypotheses: (1) Participants will respond more rapidly when target faces are preceded by a prime face with the same emotion (congruent condition) than a prime face with a different emotion (incongruent condition) or a non-face object image (neutral condition). (2) Fearful faces, whether displayed as primes or targets, will produce robust activation of the amygdala. (3) Emotional conflict (i.e., incongruent versus congruent condition) will activate the ACC and prefrontal cortex (PFC). (4) There will be a reciprocal relationship between the activation of the medial frontal region (including ACC and the ventromedial PFC) and the amygdala: lower activation of amygdala will be coupled with greater activation of the ACC and ventromedial PFC, which are involved in executive control to inhibit amygdala activity. (5) Newly displayed faces in the face recognition phase in the task will also produce robust greater activation of the amygdala and fusiform face area (FFA). (6) The retrieval of faces in the face recognition phase will produce robust activation of the hippocampus.