Deactivation of the prefrontal cortex during exposure to pleasantly-charged emotional challenge

Our laboratory reported that facial skin blood flow may serve as a sensitive tool to assess an emotional status and that both prefrontal oxygenation (as index of regional cerebral blood flow) and facial skin blood flow decrease during positively-charged emotional stimulation, without changing hand s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2018-09, Vol.8 (1), p.14540-13, Article 14540
Main Authors: Matsukawa, Kanji, Asahara, Ryota, Yoshikawa, Miho, Endo, Kana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/1457/1945
631/443/376
Blood flow
Blood pressure
Blood vessels
Cerebral blood flow
Comedies
Consciousness
Deactivation
Emotions
Heart rate
Hemoglobin
Horror films
Humanities and Social Sciences
Infrared spectroscopy
Intervention
Medical imaging
multidisciplinary
Oxygenation
Prefrontal cortex
Regions
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sensory integration
Skin
Spatial distribution
Vasoconstriction
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Summary:Our laboratory reported that facial skin blood flow may serve as a sensitive tool to assess an emotional status and that both prefrontal oxygenation (as index of regional cerebral blood flow) and facial skin blood flow decrease during positively-charged emotional stimulation, without changing hand skin blood flow and arterial pressure. However, the focal location of the prefrontal responses in concentration of oxygenated haemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) that correlate with peripheral autonomic reaction remained unknown. This study was undertaken using 22-channel near-infrared spectroscopy to reveal spatial distribution of the responses in Oxy-Hb within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during emotionally-charged audiovisual stimulation. Pleasantly-charged (comedy) stimulation caused a substantial decrease of Oxy-Hb in all regions of the PFC in 18 subjects, especially in the rostroventral frontopolar PFC, whereas negatively-charged (horror) or neutral stimulation (landscape) exhibited a weaker decrease or insignificant change in the prefrontal Oxy-Hb. In the rostral parts of the dorsolateral and ventral frontopolar PFC, the oxygenation response during comedy stimulation exhibited the most significant positive correlation with the decrease in facial skin blood flow. Thus the rostral regions of the PFC play a role in recognition and regulation of positive emotion and may be linked with neurally-mediated vasoconstriction of facial skin blood vessels.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-32752-0