Amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect

Humans routinely integrate affective information from multiple sources. For example, we rarely interpret an emotional facial expression devoid of context. In this paper, we describe the neural correlates of an affective computation that involves integrating multiple sources, by leveraging the ambigu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive, affective, & behavioral neuroscience affective, & behavioral neuroscience, 2020-10, Vol.20 (5), p.949-960
Main Authors: Kim, M. Justin, Mattek, Alison M., Shin, Jin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Affect - physiology
Ambiguity
Amygdala
Amygdala - physiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Brain
Brain Mapping
Cognitive Psychology
Cortex (parietal)
Cortex (somatosensory)
Cortex (temporal)
Cues
Emotions
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition - physiology
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Medical imaging
Neuroimaging
Neurosciences
Nucleus accumbens
Nucleus Accumbens - physiology
Psychology
Superior temporal sulcus
Thalamus
Young Adult
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Summary:Humans routinely integrate affective information from multiple sources. For example, we rarely interpret an emotional facial expression devoid of context. In this paper, we describe the neural correlates of an affective computation that involves integrating multiple sources, by leveraging the ambiguity and subtle feature-based valence signals found in surprised faces. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants reported the valence of surprised faces modulated by positive or negative sentences. Amygdala activity corresponded to the valence value assigned to each contextually modulated face, with greater activity reflecting more negative ratings. Amygdala activity did not track the valence of the faces or sentences per se . Moreover, the amygdala was functionally coupled with the nucleus accumbens only during face trials preceded by positive contextual cues. These data suggest 1) valence-related amygdala activity reflects the integrated valence values rather than the valence values of each individual component, and 2) amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect.
ISSN:1530-7026
1531-135X
DOI:10.3758/s13415-020-00812-6