Differential Activation Patterns in the Same Brain Region Led to Opposite Emotional States

In human studies, how averaged activation in a brain region relates to human behavior has been extensively investigated. This approach has led to the finding that positive and negative facial preferences are represented by different brain regions. However, using a functional magnetic resonance imagi...

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Published inPLoS biology Vol. 14; no. 9; p. e1002546
Main Authors Shibata, Kazuhisa, Watanabe, Takeo, Kawato, Mitsuo, Sasaki, Yuka
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 08.09.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adult
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain - physiology
Brain research
Cognitive ability
Emotions - physiology
Engineering and Technology
Female
Humans
Information communication
Laboratories
Linguistics
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Neural circuitry
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Physical Sciences
Physiological aspects
Preferences
R&D
Research & development
Research and Analysis Methods
Science
Social Sciences
Studies
Young Adult
Rhode Island
United States > US
Japan
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Summary:In human studies, how averaged activation in a brain region relates to human behavior has been extensively investigated. This approach has led to the finding that positive and negative facial preferences are represented by different brain regions. However, using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) decoded neurofeedback (DecNef) method, we found that different patterns of neural activations within the cingulate cortex (CC) play roles in representing opposite directions of facial preference. In the present study, while neutrally preferred faces were presented, multi-voxel activation patterns in the CC that corresponded to higher (or lower) preference were repeatedly induced by fMRI DecNef. As a result, previously neutrally preferred faces became more (or less) preferred. We conclude that a different activation pattern in the CC, rather than averaged activation in a different area, represents and suffices to determine positive or negative facial preference. This new approach may reveal the importance of an activation pattern within a brain region in many cognitive functions.
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I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests. There is a potential financial conflict of interest; the authors are the inventors of patents related to the multi-voxel pattern induction method used in this study, while the original assignee of the patents is ATR, with which the authors are affiliated.
Current address: Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan
Conceived and designed the experiments: KS TW MK YS.Performed the experiments: KS.Analyzed the data: KS MK YS.Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KS.Wrote the paper: KS TW MK YS.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002546