Positive affect is inversely related to the salience and emotion network’s connectivity

• Published in: Brain imaging and behavior Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 2031 - 2039
• Main Authors: Qi, Di, Lam, Charlene L. M., Wong, Jing Jun, Chang, Dorita H. F., Lee, Tatia M. C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Affect (Psychology); Amygdala; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Cerebral Cortex; Emotions; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Laboratories; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical imaging; Mental disorders; Nerve Net; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychology; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; Nucleus accumbens; Original Research; Psychiatry; Questionnaires; Salience; Scanners; Temporal gyrus; Young Adult; Young adults; Functional connectivity; Dynamic causal modeling; Salience and emotion network; Positive affect
• ISSN: 1931-7557; 1931-7565; 1931-7565
• DOI: 10.1007/s11682-020-00397-1

Increasing evidence has shown that positive affect enhances many aspects of daily functioning. Yet, how dispositional positive affect is represented in the intrinsic brain networks remains unclear. Here, we used resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to test how trait positive and negative affect of an individual were associated with the intrinsic connectivity of brain regions within the salience and emotion network and the default mode network in 70 healthy young adults. We observed that positive affect was negatively associated with connectivity within the salience and emotion network, particularly with the bidirectional connections spanning the left anterior insula and left nucleus accumbens. For connections between the salience and emotion network and the rest of the brain, we observed that positive affect was negatively related to the connectivity between the right amygdala and the right middle temporal gyrus. Affect-based modulations of connectivity were specific to positive affect and to the salience and emotion network. Our findings highlight the critical role of salience and emotion network in the neural relations of positive affect, and lay the groundwork for future studies on modeling the connectivity of salience and emotion network to predict mental well-being.