Identification of emotional intonation evaluated by fMRI

Uncertain Emotion Discrimination Differences Between Musicians and Non-musicians Is Determined by Fine Structure Association: Hilbert Transform Psychophysics

Humans perceive musical sound as a complex phenomenon, which is known to induce an emotional response. The cues used to perceive emotion in music have not been unequivocally elucidated. Here, we sought to identify the attributes of sound that confer an emotion to music and determine if professional musicians have different musical emotion perception than non-musicians. The objective was to determine which sound cues are used to resolve emotional signals. Happy or sad classical music excerpts modified in fine structure or envelope conveying different degrees of emotional certainty were presented. Certainty was determined by identification of the emotional characteristic presented during a forced-choice discrimination task. Participants were categorized as good or poor performers (n = 32, age 21.16 ± 2.59 SD) and in a separate group as musicians in the first or last year of music education at a conservatory (n = 32, age 21.97 ± 2.42). We found that temporal fine structure information is essential for correct emotional identification. Non-musicians used less fine structure information to discriminate emotion in music compared with musicians. The present psychophysical experiments revealed what cues are used to resolve emotional signals and how they differ between non-musicians and musically educated individuals.

Validação de conteúdo e confiabilidade do Protocolo de Avaliação dos Distúrbios Adquiridos de Fala em Indivíduos com Doença de Parkinson (PADAF)

RESUMO Objetivo Elaborar e realizar a validação de conteúdo, assim como verificar a confiabilidade entre examinador do Protocolo de Avaliação dos Distúrbios Adquiridos de Fala em Indivíduos com Doença de Parkinson (PADAF). Método O estudo foi realizado em três etapas. Na primeira, foi elaborado o protocolo e validado seu conteúdo mediante análise de sete especialistas. Na segunda, aplicou-se o instrumento em 25 indivíduos com doença de Parkinson (DP) idiopática. Na terceira e última etapa, verificou-se a confiabilidade entre-examinador. Resultados A versão final do PADAF foi composta de 32 itens que avaliam a respiração, a fonação, a ressonância, a articulação e a prosódia. Mostrou-se válido, com índice de validade de conteúdo (IVC) bem acima daquele estabelecido na literatura e com perfeita concordância na verificação da confiabilidade entre examinador. Conclusão O PADAF para indivíduos com DP foi desenvolvido e teve seu conteúdo validado com perfeita confiabilidade do instrumento.

Directional changes in information flow between human brain cortical regions after application of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over Broca's area

Little work has been done on the information flow in functional brain imaging and none so far in fNIRS. In this work, alterations in the directionality of net information flow induced by a short-duration, low-current (2 min 40 s; 0.5 mA) and a longer-duration, high-current (8 min; 1 mA) anodal tDCS applied over the Broca's area of the dominant language hemisphere were studied by fNIRS. The tDCS-induced patterns of information flow, quantified by a novel directed phase transfer entropy (dPTE) analysis, were distinct for different hemodynamic frequency bands and were qualitatively similar between low and high-current tDCS. In the endothelial band (0.003-0.02 Hz), the stimulated Broca's area became the strongest hub of outgoing information flow, whereas in the neurogenic band (0.02-0.04 Hz) the contralateral homologous area became the strongest information outflow source. In the myogenic band (0.04-0.15 Hz), only global patterns were seen, independent of tDCS stimulation that were interpreted as Mayer waves. These findings showcase dPTE analysis in fNIRS as a novel, complementary tool for studying cortical activity reorganization after an intervention.

Emotional Prosody Processing in Schizophrenic Patients: A Selective Review and Meta-Analysis

Emotional prosody (EP) has been increasingly recognized as an important area of schizophrenic patients’ dysfunctions in their language use and social communication. The present review aims to provide an updated synopsis on emotional prosody processing (EPP) in schizophrenic disorders, with a specific focus on performance characteristics, the influential factors and underlying neural mechanisms. A literature search up to 2018 was conducted with online databases, and final selections were limited to empirical studies which investigated the prosodic processing of at least one of the six basic emotions in patients with a clear diagnosis of schizophrenia without co-morbid diseases. A narrative synthesis was performed, covering the range of research topics, task paradigms, stimulus presentation, study populations and statistical power with a quantitative meta-analytic approach in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 2.0. Study outcomes indicated that schizophrenic patients’ EPP deficits were consistently observed across studies (d = −0.92, 95% CI = −1.06 < δ < −0.78), with identification tasks (d = −0.95, 95% CI = −1.11 < δ < −0.80) being more difficult to process than discrimination tasks (d = −0.74, 95% CI = −1.03 < δ < −0.44) and emotional stimuli being more difficult than neutral stimuli. Patients’ performance was influenced by both participant- and experiment-related factors. Their social cognitive deficits in EP could be further explained by right-lateralized impairments and abnormalities in primary auditory cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and auditory-insula connectivity. The data pointed to impaired pre-attentive and attentive processes, both of which played important roles in the abnormal EPP in the schizophrenic population. The current selective review and meta-analysis support the clinical advocacy of including EP in early diagnosis and rehabilitation in the general framework of social cognition and neurocognition deficits in schizophrenic disorders. Future cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are further suggested to investigate schizophrenic patients’ perception and production of EP in different languages and cultures, modality forms and neuro-cognitive domains.

The Functional Neuroanatomy of Lexical Tone Perception: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis

In tonal language such as Chinese, lexical tone serves as a phonemic feature in determining word meaning. Meanwhile, it is close to prosody in terms of suprasegmental pitch variations and larynx-based articulation. The important yet mixed nature of lexical tone has evoked considerable studies, but no consensus has been reached on its functional neuroanatomy. This meta-analysis aimed at uncovering the neural network of lexical tone perception in comparison with that of phoneme and prosody in a unified framework. Independent Activation Likelihood Estimation meta-analyses were conducted for different linguistic elements: lexical tone by native tonal language speakers, lexical tone by non-tonal language speakers, phoneme, word-level prosody, and sentence-level prosody. Results showed that lexical tone and prosody studies demonstrated more extensive activations in the right than the left auditory cortex, whereas the opposite pattern was found for phoneme studies. Only tonal language speakers consistently recruited the left anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) for processing lexical tone, an area implicated in phoneme processing and word-form recognition. Moreover, an anterior-lateral to posterior-medial gradient of activation as a function of element timescale was revealed in the right STG, in which the activation for lexical tone lied between that for phoneme and that for prosody. Another topological pattern was shown on the left precentral gyrus (preCG), with the activation for lexical tone overlapped with that for prosody but ventral to that for phoneme. These findings provide evidence that the neural network for lexical tone perception is hybrid with those for phoneme and prosody. That is, resembling prosody, lexical tone perception, regardless of language experience, involved right auditory cortex, with activation localized between sites engaged by phonemic and prosodic processing, suggesting a hierarchical organization of representations in the right auditory cortex. For tonal language speakers, lexical tone additionally engaged the left STG lexical mapping network, consistent with the phonemic representation. Similarly, when processing lexical tone, only tonal language speakers engaged the left preCG site implicated in prosody perception, consistent with tonal language speakers having stronger articulatory representations for lexical tone in the laryngeal sensorimotor network. A dynamic dual-stream model for lexical tone perception was proposed and discussed.

Investigating the Neural Basis of Theta Burst Stimulation to Premotor Cortex on Emotional Vocalization Perception: A Combined TMS-fMRI Study

Previous studies have established a role for premotor cortex in the processing of auditory emotional vocalizations. Inhibitory continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) applied to right premotor cortex selectively increases the reaction time to a same-different task, implying a causal role for right ventral premotor cortex (PMv) in the processing of emotional sounds. However, little is known about the functional networks to which PMv contribute across the cortical hemispheres. In light of these data, the present study aimed to investigate how and where in the brain cTBS affects activity during the processing of auditory emotional vocalizations. Using functional neuroimaging, we report that inhibitory cTBS applied to the right premotor cortex (compared to vertex control site) results in three distinct response profiles: following stimulation of PMv, widespread frontoparietal cortices, including a site close to the target site, and parahippocampal gyrus displayed an increase in activity, whereas the reverse response profile was apparent in a set of midline structures and right IFG. A third response profile was seen in left supramarginal gyrus in which activity was greater post-stimulation at both stimulation sites. Finally, whilst previous studies have shown a condition specific behavioral effect following cTBS to premotor cortex, we did not find a condition specific neural change in BOLD response. These data demonstrate a complex relationship between cTBS and activity in widespread neural networks and are discussed in relation to both emotional processing and the neural basis of cTBS.

Translation, linguistic and cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the Radboud Oral Motor Inventory for Parkinson's Disease – ROMP questionnaire

ABSTRACT Objective: To translate and linguistically and culturally adapt to Brazilian Portuguese, and verify the reliability and validity of the Radboud Oral Motor Inventory for Parkinson's Disease (ROMP). Methods: The ROMP was translated and retranslated, and the instrument reliability was verified by analyzing the internal consistency and the reproducibility of the intra-examiner retest. The final version was applied to 27 participants with Parkinson's disease. Results: Internal consistency was 0.99 for the total ROMP and 0.96 to 0.99 for the three domains. Intraclass correlation coefficients for reproducibility were 0.99 for the total ROMP and 0.93 to 0.99 for the subscales. The ROMP and its subscales correlated substantially with the Likert-type scale, as well as with the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale II and III items. Conclusion: The linguistic and cultural equivalence of the ROMP in Brazilian Portuguese is now available, with excellent reliability and validity.

Modulating the resting-state functional connectivity patterns of language processing areas in the human brain with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation applied over the Broca's area

Cortical circuit reorganization induced by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the Broca's area of the dominant language hemisphere in 13 healthy adults was quantified by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Transient cortical reorganization patterns in steady-state functional connectivity (seed-based and graph theory analysis) and temporal functional connectivity (sliding window correlation analysis) were recorded before, during, and after applying high current tDCS (1 mA, 8 min). fNIRS connectivity mapping showed that tDCS induced significantly ([Formula: see text]) increased functional connectivity between Broca's area and its neighboring cortical regions while it simultaneously decreased the connectivity to remote cortical regions. Furthermore, the anodal stimulation caused significant increases to the functional connectivity variability (FCV) of remote cortical regions related to language processing. In addition to the high current tDCS, low current tDCS (0.5 mA, 2 min 40 s) was also applied to test whether the transient effects of lower stimulation current could qualitatively predict cortical connectivity alterations induced by the higher currents. Interestingly, low current tDCS could qualitatively predict the increase in clustering coefficient and FCV but not the enhancement of local connectivity. Our findings indicate the possibility of combining future studies fNIRS with tDCS at lower currents to help guide therapeutic interventions.

Prosody production networks are modulated by sensory cues and social context

The neurobiology of emotional prosody production is not well investigated. In particular, the effects of cues and social context are not known. The present study sought to differentiate cued from free emotion generation and the effect of social feedback from a human listener. Online speech filtering enabled functional magnetic resonance imaging during prosodic communication in 30 participants. Emotional vocalizations were (i) free, (ii) auditorily cued, (iii) visually cued or (iv) with interactive feedback. In addition to distributed language networks, cued emotions increased activity in auditory and—in case of visual stimuli—visual cortex. Responses were larger in posterior superior temporal gyrus at the right hemisphere and the ventral striatum when participants were listened to and received feedback from the experimenter. Sensory, language and reward networks contributed to prosody production and were modulated by cues and social context. The right posterior superior temporal gyrus is a central hub for communication in social interactions—in particular for interpersonal evaluation of vocal emotions.

Dissociable meta-analytic brain networks contribute to coordinated emotional processing

Meta-analytic techniques for mining the neuroimaging literature continue to exert an impact on our conceptualization of functional brain networks contributing to human emotion and cognition. Traditional theories regarding the neurobiological substrates contributing to affective processing are shifting from regional- towards more network-based heuristic frameworks. To elucidate differential brain network involvement linked to distinct aspects of emotion processing, we applied an emergent meta-analytic clustering approach to the extensive body of affective neuroimaging results archived in the BrainMap database. Specifically, we performed hierarchical clustering on the modeled activation maps from 1,747 experiments in the affective processing domain, resulting in five meta-analytic groupings of experiments demonstrating whole-brain recruitment. Behavioral inference analyses conducted for each of these groupings suggested dissociable networks supporting: (1) visual perception within primary and associative visual cortices, (2) auditory perception within primary auditory cortices, (3) attention to emotionally salient information within insular, anterior cingulate, and subcortical regions, (4) appraisal and prediction of emotional events within medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, and (5) induction of emotional responses within amygdala and fusiform gyri. These meta-analytic outcomes are consistent with a contemporary psychological model of affective processing in which emotionally salient information from perceived stimuli are integrated with previous experiences to engender a subjective affective response. This study highlights the utility of using emergent meta-analytic methods to inform and extend psychological theories and suggests that emotions are manifest as the eventual consequence of interactions between large-scale brain networks.

The auditory cortex hosts network nodes influential for emotion processing: An fMRI study on music-evoked fear and joy

Sound is a potent elicitor of emotions. Auditory core, belt and parabelt regions have anatomical connections to a large array of limbic and paralimbic structures which are involved in the generation of affective activity. However, little is known about the functional role of auditory cortical regions in emotion processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and music stimuli that evoke joy or fear, our study reveals that anterior and posterior regions of auditory association cortex have emotion-characteristic functional connectivity with limbic/paralimbic (insula, cingulate cortex, and striatum), somatosensory, visual, motor-related, and attentional structures. We found that these regions have remarkably high emotion-characteristic eigenvector centrality, revealing that they have influential positions within emotion-processing brain networks with “small-world” properties. By contrast, primary auditory fields showed surprisingly strong emotion-characteristic functional connectivity with intra-auditory regions. Our findings demonstrate that the auditory cortex hosts regions that are influential within networks underlying the affective processing of auditory information. We anticipate our results to incite research specifying the role of the auditory cortex—and sensory systems in general—in emotion processing, beyond the traditional view that sensory cortices have merely perceptual functions.

Speech Prosodies of Different Emotional Categories Activate Different Brain Regions in Adult Cortex: an fNIRS Study

Emotional expressions of others embedded in speech prosodies are important for social interactions. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate how speech prosodies of different emotional categories are processed in the cortex. The results demonstrated several cerebral areas critical for emotional prosody processing. We confirmed that the superior temporal cortex, especially the right middle and posterior parts of superior temporal gyrus (BA 22/42), primarily works to discriminate between emotional and neutral prosodies. Furthermore, the results suggested that categorization of emotions occurs within a high-level brain region–the frontal cortex, since the brain activation patterns were distinct when positive (happy) were contrasted to negative (fearful and angry) prosody in the left middle part of inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45) and the frontal eye field (BA8), and when angry were contrasted to neutral prosody in bilateral orbital frontal regions (BA 10/11). These findings verified and extended previous fMRI findings in adult brain and also provided a “developed version” of brain activation for our following neonatal study.

Altered Regional Cerebral Blood Flow of Right Cerebellum Posterior Lobe in Asthmatic Patients With or Without Depressive Symptoms

Background: Asthma is a chronic disease appeared to be associated with depression. But the underpinnings of depression in asthma remain unknown. In order to understand the neural mechanisms of depression in asthma, we used cerebral blood flow (CBF) to probe the difference between depressed asthmatic (DA) and non-depressed asthmatic (NDA) patients. Methods: Eighteen DA patients, 24 NDA patients and 57 healthy controls (HC) received pulsed arterial spin labeling (pASL) scan for measuring CBF, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan, severity of depression and asthma control assessment, respectively. Results: Compared to NDA, DA patients showed increased regional CBF (rCBF) in the right cerebellum posterior lobe. Compared to HC, DA, and NDA patients all showed significantly decreased rCBF in the right cerebellum posterior lobe. Conclusions: We showed the first evidence of altered rCBF in the right cerebellum posterior lobe in asthma using pASL, which appeared to be involved in the neuropathology in asthma. Clinical Trial Registration: An investigation of therapeutic mechanism in asthmatic patients: based on the results of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Registration number: ChiCTR-COC-15007442) (http://www.chictr.org.cn/usercenter.aspx).

How do morphological alterations caused by chronic pain distribute across the brain? A meta-analytic co-alteration study

•In chronic pain, gray matter (GM) alterations are not distributed randomly across the brain.•The pattern of co-alterations resembles that of brain connectivity.•The alterations' distribution partly rely on the pathways of functional connectivity.•This method allows us to identify tendencies in the distribution of GM co-alteration related to chronic pain.

Emotional prosody processing in autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are characterized by severe deficits in social communication, whereby the nature of their impairments in emotional prosody processing have yet to be specified. Here, we investigated emotional prosody processing in individuals with ASD and controls with novel, lifelike behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms. Compared to controls, individuals with ASD showed reduced emotional prosody recognition accuracy on a behavioral task. On the neural level, individuals with ASD displayed reduced activity of the STS, insula and amygdala for complex vs basic emotions compared to controls. Moreover, the coupling between the STS and amygdala for complex vs basic emotions was reduced in the ASD group. Finally, groups differed with respect to the relationship between brain activity and behavioral performance. Brain activity during emotional prosody processing was more strongly related to prosody recognition accuracy in ASD participants. In contrast, the coupling between STS and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity predicted behavioral task performance more strongly in the control group. These results provide evidence for aberrant emotional prosody processing of individuals with ASD. They suggest that the differences in the relationship between the neural and behavioral level of individuals with ASD may account for their observed deficits in social communication.

Affective mapping: An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis

Functional neuroimaging has the spatial resolution to explain the neural basis of emotions. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE), as opposed to traditional qualitative meta-analysis, quantifies convergence of activation across studies within affective categories. Others have used ALE to investigate a broad range of emotions, but without the convenience of the BrainMap database. We used the BrainMap database and analysis resources to run separate meta-analyses on coordinates reported for anger, anxiety, disgust, fear, happiness, humor, and sadness. Resultant ALE maps were compared to determine areas of convergence between emotions, as well as to identify affect-specific networks. Five out of the seven emotions demonstrated consistent activation within the amygdala, whereas all emotions consistently activated the right inferior frontal gyrus, which has been implicated as an integration hub for affective and cognitive processes. These data provide the framework for models of affect-specific networks, as well as emotional processing hubs, which can be used for future studies of functional or effective connectivity.

Loud and angry: sound intensity modulates amygdala activation to angry voices in social anxiety disorder

Angry expressions of both voices and faces represent disorder-relevant stimuli in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although individuals with SAD show greater amygdala activation to angry faces, previous work has failed to find comparable effects for angry voices. Here, we investigated whether voice sound-intensity, a modulator of a voice's threat-relevance, affects brain responses to angry prosody in SAD. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore brain responses to voices varying in sound intensity and emotional prosody in SAD patients and healthy controls (HCs). Angry and neutral voices were presented either with normal or high sound amplitude, while participants had to decide upon the speaker's gender. Loud vs normal voices induced greater insula activation, and angry vs neutral prosody greater orbitofrontal cortex activation in SAD as compared with HC subjects. Importantly, an interaction of sound intensity, prosody and group was found in the insula and the amygdala. In particular, the amygdala showed greater activation to loud angry voices in SAD as compared with HC subjects. This finding demonstrates a modulating role of voice sound-intensity on amygdalar hyperresponsivity to angry prosody in SAD and suggests that abnormal processing of interpersonal threat signals in amygdala extends beyond facial expressions in SAD.

A diffusion spectrum imaging-based tractographic study into the anatomical subdivision and cortical connectivity of the ventral external capsule: uncinate and inferior fronto-occipital fascicles

PURPOSE

The inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF) are major fronto-capsular white matter pathways. IFOF connects frontal areas of the brain to parieto-occipital areas. UF connects ventral frontal areas to anterior temporal areas. Both fascicles are thought to subserve higher language and emotion roles. Controversy pertaining to their connectivity and subdivision persists in the literature, however.

METHODS

High-definition fiber tractography (HDFT) is a non-tensor tractographic method using diffusion spectrum imaging data. Its major advantage over tensor-based tractography is its ability to trace crossing fiber pathways. We used HDFT to investigate subdivisions and cortical connectivity of IFOF and UF in 30 single subjects and in an atlas comprising averaged data from 842 individuals. A per-subject aligned, atlas-based approach was employed to seed fiber tracts and to study cortical terminations.

RESULTS

For IFOF, we observed a tripartite arrangement corresponding to ventrolateral, ventromedial, and dorsomedial frontal origins. IFOF volume was not significantly lateralized to either hemisphere. UF fibers arose from ventromedial and ventrolateral frontal areas on the left and from ventromedial frontal areas on the right. UF volume was significantly lateralized to the left hemisphere. The data from the averaged atlas was largely in concordance with subject-specific findings. IFOF connected to parietal, occipital, but not temporal, areas. UF connected predominantly to temporal poles.

CONCLUSION

Both IFOF and UF possess subdivided arrangements according to their frontal origin. Our connectivity results indicate the multifunctional involvement of IFOF and UF in language tasks. We discuss our findings in context of the tractographic literature.

Neural systems for evaluating speaker (Un)believability

Our voice provides salient cues about how confident we sound, which promotes inferences about how believable we are. However, the neural mechanisms involved in these social inferences are largely unknown. Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the brain networks and individual differences underlying the evaluation of speaker believability from vocal expressions. Participants (n = 26) listened to statements produced in a confident, unconfident, or "prosodically unmarked" (neutral) voice, and judged how believable the speaker was on a 4-point scale. We found frontal-temporal networks were activated for different levels of confidence, with the left superior and inferior frontal gyrus more activated for confident statements, the right superior temporal gyrus for unconfident expressions, and bilateral cerebellum for statements in a neutral voice. Based on listener's believability judgment, we observed increased activation in the right superior parietal lobule (SPL) associated with higher believability, while increased left posterior central gyrus (PoCG) was associated with less believability. A psychophysiological interaction analysis found that the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral caudate were connected to the right SPL when higher believability judgments were made, while supplementary motor area was connected with the left PoCG when lower believability judgments were made. Personal characteristics, such as interpersonal reactivity and the individual tendency to trust others, modulated the brain activations and the functional connectivity when making believability judgments. In sum, our data pinpoint neural mechanisms that are involved when inferring one's believability from a speaker's voice and establish ways that these mechanisms are modulated by individual characteristics of a listener. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3732-3749, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy Reversed Insula Subregions Functional Connectivity in Asthmatic Patients

Background: Group cognitive behavior therapy (GCBT) is an effective treatment in improving self-management behaviors and quality of life for asthmatic patients. However, the mechanisms by which GCBT improves asthma-related clinical symptoms remain unknown. Previous studies have indicated that insula is an important region involved in the neuropathology of asthma. Therefore, we examined the possible alteration of functional connectivity (FC) in insula subregions after GCBT in asthmatic patients. Methods: Forty-two asthmatic patients and 60 healthy controls (HCs) received resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan and clinical assessments, 17 asthmatic patients completed GCBT treatment consisting of 8 sessions, and then received rs-fMRI scan and clinical assessments. Results: Asthmatic patients had greater left ventral anterior insula (vAI) FC with the left cerebellum posterior lobe, right middle temporal gyrus, and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), but less FC with bilateral postcentral gyrus, bilateral occipital lobe, and left precentral gyrus compared with HCs. FC between left posterior insula and left medial frontal gyrus also increased in the patients. In addition, right vAI showed increased FC with right caudate and left putamen. FC between right dorsal anterior insula (dAI) and left calcarine however decreased. The increase in FC in insula subregions were significantly improved following GCBT. FC between the left vAI connectivity and left postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with the percentage of improvement in 17-items Hamilton depression rating scale scores, and FC between the right dAI and left calcarine was negatively associated with the improvement percentage in asthma control test scores. Conclusions: This study in the first time demonstrated that GCBT led to significant improvement of FC between insula subregions and other brain regions. Clinical Trial Registration: An investigation of therapeutic mechanism in asthmatic patients: based on the results of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Registration number: ChiCTR-COC-15007442) (http://www.chictr.org.cn/usercenter.aspx).

The attribution of animacy and agency in frontotemporal dementia versus Alzheimer's disease

Impaired attribution of animacy (state of living or being sentient) and of agency (capability of intrinsically-driven action) may underlie social behavior disturbances in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We presented the Heider and Simmel film of moving geometric shapes to 11 bvFTD patients, 11 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, and 12 healthy controls (HCs) and rated their recorded verbal responses for animacy attribution and agency attribution. All participants had skin conductance (SC) continuously recorded while viewing the film, and all dementia participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for regions of interest. The bvFTD patients, but not the AD patients, were impaired in animacy attribution, compared to the HCs. In contrast, both bvFTD and AD groups were impaired in agency attribution, compared to the HCs, and only the HCs had increasing SC responsiveness during viewing of the film. On MRI analysis of cortical thicknesses, animacy scores significantly correlated across groups with the right pars orbitalis and opercularis; agency scores with the left inferior and superior parietal cortices and the supramarginal gyrus; and both scores with the left cingulate isthmus involved in visuospatial context. These findings suggest that bvFTD is specifically associated with impaired animacy attribution from right inferior frontal atrophy. In contrast, both dementias may have impaired agency attribution from left parietal cortical atrophy and absent SC increases during the film, a sympathetic indicator of attribution of a social "story" to the moving shapes. These findings clarify disease-related changes in social attribution and corroborate the neuroanatomical origins of animacy and agency.

Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and cerebellar contribution to in-group attitudes: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

We tend to express more positive judgments and behaviors toward individuals belonging to our own group compared to other (out-) groups. In this study, we assessed the role of the cerebellum and of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) - two regions critically implicated in social cognition processes - in mediating implicit valenced attitudes toward in-group and out-group individuals. To this aim, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in combination with a standard attitude priming task, in which Caucasian participants had to categorize the valence of a series of adjectives primed by either an in-group or an out-group face. In two behavioral experiments, we found an in-group bias (i.e. faster categorization of positive adjectives when preceded by in-group faces) but no evidence of an out-group bias. Interestingly, TMS over both the dmPFC and over the (right) cerebellum significantly interfered with the modulation exerted by group membership on adjective valence classification, abolishing the in-group bias observed at baseline. Overall, our data suggest that both the dmPFC and the cerebellum play a causal role in mediating implicit social attitudes.

The Role of Left Hemispheric Structures for Emotional Processing as a Monitor of Bodily Reaction and Felt Chill - a Case-Control Functional Imaging Study

Background: The particular function of the left anterior human insula on emotional arousal has been illustrated with several case studies. Only after left hemispheric insula lesions, patients lose their pleasure in habits such as listening to joyful music. In functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) activation in the left anterior insula has been associated with both processing of emotional valence and arousal. Tight interactions with different areas of the prefrontal cortex are involved in bodily response monitoring and cognitive appraisal of a given stimulus. Therefore, a large left hemispheric lesion including the left insula should impair the bodily response of chill experience (objective chill response) but leave the cognitive aspects of chill processing (subjective chill response) unaffected.

Methods: We investigated a patient (MC) with a complete left hemispheric media cerebral artery stroke, testing fMRI representation of pleasant (music) and unpleasant (harsh sounds) chill response.

Results: Although chill response to both pleasant and unpleasant rated sounds was confirmed verbally at passages also rated as chilling by healthy participants, skin conductance response was almost absent in MC. For a healthy control (HC) objective and subjective chill response was positively associated. Bilateral prefrontal fMRI-response to chill stimuli was sustained in MC whereas insula activation restricted to the right hemisphere. Diffusion imaging together with lesion maps revealed that left lateral tracts were completely damaged but medial prefrontal structures were intact.

Conclusion: With this case study we demonstrate how bodily response and cognitive appraisal are differentially participating in the internal monitor of chill response.

The regional neuronal activity in left posterior middle temporal gyrus is correlated with the severity of chronic aphasia

BACKGROUND

Aphasia is one of the most disabling cognitive deficits affecting >2 million people in the USA. The neuroimaging characteristics of chronic aphasic patients (>6 months post onset) remain largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to investigate the regional signal changes of spontaneous neuronal activity of brain and the inter-regional connectivity in chronic aphasia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Resting-state blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to obtain fMRI data from 17 chronic aphasic patients and 20 healthy control subjects in a Siemens Verio 3.0T MR Scanner. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was determined, which directly reflects the regional neuronal activity. The functional connectivity (FC) of fMRI was assessed using a seed voxel linear correlation approach. The severity of aphasia was evaluated by aphasia quotient (AQ) scores obtained from Western Aphasia Battery test.

RESULTS

Compared with normal subjects, aphasic patients showed decreased ALFF values in the regions of left posterior middle temporal gyrus (PMTG), left medial prefrontal gyrus, and right cerebellum. The ALFF values in left PMTG showed strong positive correlation with the AQ score (coefficient r=0.79, P<0.05). There was a positive FC in chronic aphasia between left PMTG and left inferior temporal gyrus (BA20), fusiform gyrus (BA37), and inferior frontal gyrus (BA47\45\44).

CONCLUSION

Left PMTG might play an important role in language dysfunction of chronic aphasia, and ALFF value might be a promising indicator to evaluate the severity of aphasia.

A comparative neurological approach to emotional expressions in primate vocalizations

Different approaches from different research domains have crystallized debate over primate emotional processing and vocalizations in recent decades. On one side, researchers disagree about whether emotional states or processes in animals truly compare to those in humans. On the other, a long-held assumption is that primate vocalizations are innate communicative signals over which nonhuman primates have limited control and a mirror of the emotional state of the individuals producing them, despite growing evidence of intentional production for some vocalizations. Our goal is to connect both sides of the discussion in deciphering how the emotional content of primate calls compares with emotional vocal signals in humans. We focus particularly on neural bases of primate emotions and vocalizations to identify cerebral structures underlying emotion, vocal production, and comprehension in primates, and discuss whether particular structures or neuronal networks solely evolved for specific functions in the human brain. Finally, we propose a model to classify emotional vocalizations in primates according to four dimensions (learning, control, emotional, meaning) to allow comparing calls across species.

Functional deficit of the medial prefrontal cortex during emotional sentence attribution in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND

Functional brain imaging research has already demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia had difficulties with emotion processing, namely in facial emotion perception and emotional prosody. However, the moderating effect of social context and the boundary of perceptual categories of emotion attribution remain unclear. This study investigated the neural bases of emotional sentence attribution in schizophrenia.

METHODS

Twenty-one schizophrenia patients and 25 healthy subjects underwent an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm including two tasks: one to classify sentences according to their emotional content, and the other to classify neutral sentences according to their grammatical person.

RESULTS

First, patients showed longer response times as compared to controls only during the emotion attribution task. Second, patients with schizophrenia showed reduction of activation in bilateral auditory areas irrespective of the presence of emotions. Lastly, during emotional sentences attribution, patients displayed less activation than controls in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest that the functional abnormality observed in the mPFC during the emotion attribution task could provide a biological basis for social cognition deficits in patients with schizophrenia.

The Language, Tone and Prosody of Emotions: Neural Substrates and Dynamics of Spoken-Word Emotion Perception

Rapid assessment of emotions is important for detecting and prioritizing salient input. Emotions are conveyed in spoken words via verbal and non-verbal channels that are mutually informative and unveil in parallel over time, but the neural dynamics and interactions of these processes are not well understood. In this paper, we review the literature on emotion perception in faces, written words, and voices, as a basis for understanding the functional organization of emotion perception in spoken words. The characteristics of visual and auditory routes to the amygdala—a subcortical center for emotion perception—are compared across these stimulus classes in terms of neural dynamics, hemispheric lateralization, and functionality. Converging results from neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and lesion studies suggest the existence of an afferent route to the amygdala and primary visual cortex for fast and subliminal processing of coarse emotional face cues. We suggest that a fast route to the amygdala may also function for brief non-verbal vocalizations (e.g., laugh, cry), in which emotional category is conveyed effectively by voice tone and intensity. However, emotional prosody which evolves on longer time scales and is conveyed by fine-grained spectral cues appears to be processed via a slower, indirect cortical route. For verbal emotional content, the bulk of current evidence, indicating predominant left lateralization of the amygdala response and timing of emotional effects attributable to speeded lexical access, is more consistent with an indirect cortical route to the amygdala. Top-down linguistic modulation may play an important role for prioritized perception of emotions in words. Understanding the neural dynamics and interactions of emotion and language perception is important for selecting potent stimuli and devising effective training and/or treatment approaches for the alleviation of emotional dysfunction across a range of neuropsychiatric states.

Recruitment of Language-, Emotion- and Speech-Timing Associated Brain Regions for Expressing Emotional Prosody: Investigation of Functional Neuroanatomy with fMRI

We aimed to progress understanding of prosodic emotion expression by establishing brain regions active when expressing specific emotions, those activated irrespective of the target emotion, and those whose activation intensity varied depending on individual performance. BOLD contrast data were acquired whilst participants spoke non-sense words in happy, angry or neutral tones, or performed jaw-movements. Emotion-specific analyses demonstrated that when expressing angry prosody, activated brain regions included the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri, the insula, and the basal ganglia. When expressing happy prosody, the activated brain regions also included the superior temporal gyrus, insula, and basal ganglia, with additional activation in the anterior cingulate. Conjunction analysis confirmed that the superior temporal gyrus and basal ganglia were activated regardless of the specific emotion concerned. Nevertheless, disjunctive comparisons between the expression of angry and happy prosody established that anterior cingulate activity was significantly higher for angry prosody than for happy prosody production. Degree of inferior frontal gyrus activity correlated with the ability to express the target emotion through prosody. We conclude that expressing prosodic emotions (vs. neutral intonation) requires generic brain regions involved in comprehending numerous aspects of language, emotion-related processes such as experiencing emotions, and in the time-critical integration of speech information.

Neocortical grey matter distribution underlying voluntary, flexible vocalizations in chimpanzees

Vocal learning is a key property of spoken language, which might also be present in nonhuman primate species, such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), to a limited degree. While understanding the origins of vocal learning in the primate brain may help shed light on the evolution of speech and language, little is still known regarding the neurobiological correlates of vocal flexibility in nonhuman primates. The current study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to assess whether the cerebral cortex of captive chimpanzees that learned to voluntarily produce sounds to attract the attention of a human experimenter (attention-getting sounds) differs in grey matter distribution compared to chimpanzees that do not exhibit this behavior. It was found that chimpanzees that produce attention-getting sounds were characterized by increased grey matter in the ventrolateral prefrontal and dorsal premotor cortices. These findings suggest that the evolution of the capacity to flexibly modulate vocal output may be associated with reorganization of regions for motor control, including orofacial movements, in the primate brain.

Hidden sources of joy, fear, and sadness: Explicit versus implicit neural processing of musical emotions

Music is often used to regulate emotions and mood. Typically, music conveys and induces emotions even when one does not attend to them. Studies on the neural substrates of musical emotions have, however, only examined brain activity when subjects have focused on the emotional content of the music. Here we address with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the neural processing of happy, sad, and fearful music with a paradigm in which 56 subjects were instructed to either classify the emotions (explicit condition) or pay attention to the number of instruments playing (implicit condition) in 4-s music clips. In the implicit vs. explicit condition, stimuli activated bilaterally the inferior parietal lobule, premotor cortex, caudate, and ventromedial frontal areas. The cortical dorsomedial prefrontal and occipital areas activated during explicit processing were those previously shown to be associated with the cognitive processing of music and emotion recognition and regulation. Moreover, happiness in music was associated with activity in the bilateral auditory cortex, left parahippocampal gyrus, and supplementary motor area, whereas the negative emotions of sadness and fear corresponded with activation of the left anterior cingulate and middle frontal gyrus and down-regulation of the orbitofrontal cortex. Our study demonstrates for the first time in healthy subjects the neural underpinnings of the implicit processing of brief musical emotions, particularly in frontoparietal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and striatal areas of the brain.

Neurobiology of knowledge and misperception of lyrics

We conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to investigate the neural underpinnings of knowledge and misperception of lyrics. In fMRI experiment 1, a linear relationship between familiarity with lyrics and activation was found in left-hemispheric speech-related as well as bilateral striatal areas which is in line with previous research on generation of lyrics. In fMRI experiment 2, we employed so called Mondegreens and Soramimi to induce misperceptions of lyrics revealing a bilateral network including middle temporal and inferior frontal areas as well as anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and mediodorsal thalamus. ACC activation also correlated with the extent to which misperceptions were judged as amusing corroborating previous neuroimaging results on the role of this area in mediating the pleasant experience of chills during music perception. Finally, we examined the areas engaged during misperception of lyrics using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to determine their structural connectivity. These combined fMRI/DWI results could serve as a neurobiological model for future studies on other types of misunderstanding which are events with potentially strong impact on our social life.

Resting functional connectivity in social anxiety disorder and the effect of pharmacotherapy

Neuroimaging research has reported differences in resting-state functional connectivity (RFC) between social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients and healthy controls (HCs). Limited research has examined the effect of treatment on RFC in SAD. We performed a study to identify differences in RFC between SAD and HC groups, and to investigate the effect of pharmacotherapy on RFC in SAD. Seed-based RFC analysis was performed on technetium-99m hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (Tc-99m HMPAO) SPECT scans using a cross-subject approach in SPM-12. Seeds were chosen to represent regions in a recently published network model of SAD. A second-level regression analysis was performed to further characterize the underlying relationships identified in the group contrasts. Twenty-three SAD participants were included, of which 18 underwent follow-up measures after an 8-week course of citalopram or moclobemide. Fifteen healthy control (HC) scans were included. SAD participants at baseline demonstrated several significant connectivity disturbances consistent with the existing network model as well as one previously unreported finding (increased connectivity between cerebellum and posterior cingulate cortex). After therapy, the SAD group demonstrated significant increases in connectivity with dorsal anterior cingulate cortex which may explain therapy-induced modifications in how SAD sufferers interpret emotions in others and improvements in self-related and emotional processing.

Perception of Emotional Prosody: Moving Toward a Model That Incorporates Sex-Related Differences

The overall purpose of this article is to review the literature that addresses the theoretical models, neuroanatomical mechanisms, and sex-related differences in the perception of emotional prosody. Specifically, the article focuses on the right-hemisphere model of emotion processing as it pertains to the perception of emotional prosody. This article also reviews more recent research that implicates a role for the left hemisphere and subcortical structures in the perception of emotional prosody. The last major section of this article addresses sex-related differences and the potential influence of hormones on the perception of emotional prosody. The article concludes with a section that offers directions for future research.

The sound of emotions-Towards a unifying neural network perspective of affective sound processing

Affective sounds are an integral part of the natural and social environment that shape and influence behavior across a multitude of species. In human primates, these affective sounds span a repertoire of environmental and human sounds when we vocalize or produce music. In terms of neural processing, cortical and subcortical brain areas constitute a distributed network that supports our listening experience to these affective sounds. Taking an exhaustive cross-domain view, we accordingly suggest a common neural network that facilitates the decoding of the emotional meaning from a wide source of sounds rather than a traditional view that postulates distinct neural systems for specific affective sound types. This new integrative neural network view unifies the decoding of affective valence in sounds, and ascribes differential as well as complementary functional roles to specific nodes within a common neural network. It also highlights the importance of an extended brain network beyond the central limbic and auditory brain systems engaged in the processing of affective sounds.

Association of thalamic hyperactivity with treatment-resistant depression and poor response in early treatment for major depression: a resting-state fMRI study using fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations

Despite novel antidepressant development, 10-30% of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have antidepressant treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Although new therapies are needed, lack of knowledge regarding the neural mechanisms underlying TRD hinders development of new therapeutic options. We aimed to identify brain regions in which spontaneous neural activity is not only altered in TRD but also associated with early treatment resistance in MDD. Sixteen patients with TRD, 16 patients with early-phase non-TRD and 26 healthy control (HC) subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. To identify brain region differences in spontaneous neural activity between patients with and without TRD, we assessed fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF). We also calculated correlations between the percent change in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17) scores and fALFF values in brain regions with differing activity for patients with and without TRD. Patients with TRD had increased right-thalamic fALFF values compared with patients without TRD. The percent change in HRSD17 scores negatively correlated with fALFF values in patients with non-TRD. In addition, patients with TRD showed increased fALFF values in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and vermis, compared with patients with non-TRD and HC subjects. Our results show that spontaneous activity in the right thalamus correlates with antidepressant treatment response. We also demonstrate that spontaneous activity in the right IFG, IPL and vermis may be specifically implicated in the neural pathophysiology of TRD.

Computational meta-analysis of statistical parametric maps in major depression

OBJECTIVE

Several neuroimaging meta-analyses have summarized structural brain changes in major depression using coordinate-based methods. These methods might be biased toward brain regions where significant differences were found in the original studies. In this study, a novel voxel-based technique is implemented that estimates and meta-analyses between-group differences in grey matter from individual MRI studies, which are then applied to the study of major depression.

METHODS

A systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies were conducted comparing participants with major depression and healthy controls by using statistical parametric maps. Summary effect sizes were computed correcting for multiple comparisons at the voxel level. Publication bias and heterogeneity were also estimated and the excess of heterogeneity was investigated with metaregression analyses.

RESULTS

Patients with major depression were characterized by diffuse bilateral grey matter loss in ventrolateral and ventromedial frontal systems extending into temporal gyri compared to healthy controls. Grey matter reduction was also detected in the right parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, hippocampus, and bilateral thalamus. Other areas included parietal lobes and cerebellum. There was no evidence of statistically significant publication bias or heterogeneity.

CONCLUSIONS

The novel computational meta-analytic approach used in this study identified extensive grey matter loss in key brain regions implicated in emotion generation and regulation. Results are not biased toward the findings of the original studies because they include all available imaging data, irrespective of statistically significant regions, resulting in enhanced detection of additional areas of grey matter loss.

Cortical processing of phonetic and emotional information in speech: A cross-modal priming study

The current study employed behavioral and electrophysiological measures to investigate the timing, localization, and neural oscillation characteristics of cortical activities associated with phonetic and emotional information processing of speech. The experimental design used a cross-modal priming paradigm in which the normal adult participants were presented a visual prime followed by an auditory target. Primes were facial expressions that systematically varied in emotional content (happy or angry) and mouth shape (corresponding to /a/ or /i/ vowels). Targets were spoken words that varied by emotional prosody (happy or angry) and vowel (/a/ or /i/). In both the phonetic and prosodic conditions, participants were asked to judge congruency status of the visual prime and the auditory target. Behavioral results showed a congruency effect for both percent correct and reaction time. Two ERP responses, the N400 and late positive response (LPR), were identified in both conditions. Source localization and inter-trial phase coherence of the N400 and LPR components further revealed different cortical contributions and neural oscillation patterns for selective processing of phonetic and emotional information in speech. The results provide corroborating evidence for the necessity of differentiating brain mechanisms underlying the representation and processing of co-existing linguistic and paralinguistic information in spoken language, which has important implications for theoretical models of speech recognition as well as clinical studies on the neural bases of language and social communication deficits.

Viewing the Personality Traits Through a Cerebellar Lens: a Focus on the Constructs of Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, and Alexithymia

The variance in the range of personality trait expression appears to be linked to structural variance in specific brain regions. In evidencing associations between personality factors and neurobiological measures, it seems evident that the cerebellum has not been up to now thought as having a key role in personality. This paper will review the most recent structural and functional neuroimaging literature that engages the cerebellum in personality traits, as novelty seeking and harm avoidance, and it will discuss the findings in the context of contemporary theories of affective and cognitive cerebellar function. By using region of interest (ROI)- and voxel-based approaches, we recently evidenced that the cerebellar volumes correlate positively with novelty seeking scores and negatively with harm avoidance scores. Subjects who search for new situations as a novelty seeker does (and a harm avoiding does not do) show a different engagement of their cerebellar circuitries in order to rapidly adapt to changing environments. The emerging model of cerebellar functionality may explain how the cerebellar abilities in planning, controlling, and putting into action the behavior are associated to normal or abnormal personality constructs. In this framework, it is worth reporting that increased cerebellar volumes are even associated with high scores in alexithymia, construct of personality characterized by impairment in cognitive, emotional, and affective processing. On such a basis, it seems necessary to go over the traditional cortico-centric view of personality constructs and to address the function of the cerebellar system in sustaining aspects of motivational network that characterizes the different temperamental traits.

Reappraising the voices of wrath

Cognitive reappraisal recruits prefrontal and parietal cortical areas. Because of the near exclusive usage in past research of visual stimuli to elicit emotions, it is unknown whether the same neural substrates underlie the reappraisal of emotions induced through other sensory modalities. Here, participants reappraised their emotions in order to increase or decrease their emotional response to angry prosody, or maintained their attention to it in a control condition. Neural activity was monitored with fMRI, and connectivity was investigated by using psychophysiological interaction analyses. A right-sided network encompassing the superior temporal gyrus, the superior temporal sulcus and the inferior frontal gyrus was found to underlie the processing of angry prosody. During reappraisal to increase emotional response, the left superior frontal gyrus showed increased activity and became functionally coupled to right auditory cortices. During reappraisal to decrease emotional response, a network that included the medial frontal gyrus and posterior parietal areas showed increased activation and greater functional connectivity with bilateral auditory regions. Activations pertaining to this network were more extended on the right side of the brain. Although directionality cannot be inferred from PPI analyses, the findings suggest a similar frontoparietal network for the reappraisal of visually and auditorily induced negative emotions.

Spatio-temporal distribution of brain activity associated with audio-visually congruent and incongruent speech and the McGurk Effect

INTRODUCTION

Spatio-temporal distributions of cortical activity to audio-visual presentations of meaningless vowel-consonant-vowels and the effects of audio-visual congruence/incongruence, with emphasis on the McGurk effect, were studied. The McGurk effect occurs when a clearly audible syllable with one consonant, is presented simultaneously with a visual presentation of a face articulating a syllable with a different consonant and the resulting percept is a syllable with a consonant other than the auditorily presented one.

METHODS

Twenty subjects listened to pairs of audio-visually congruent or incongruent utterances and indicated whether pair members were the same or not. Source current densities of event-related potentials to the first utterance in the pair were estimated and effects of stimulus-response combinations, brain area, hemisphere, and clarity of visual articulation were assessed.

RESULTS

Auditory cortex, superior parietal cortex, and middle temporal cortex were the most consistently involved areas across experimental conditions. Early (<200 msec) processing of the consonant was overall prominent in the left hemisphere, except right hemisphere prominence in superior parietal cortex and secondary visual cortex. Clarity of visual articulation impacted activity in secondary visual cortex and Wernicke's area. McGurk perception was associated with decreased activity in primary and secondary auditory cortices and Wernicke's area before 100 msec, increased activity around 100 msec which decreased again around 180 msec. Activity in Broca's area was unaffected by McGurk perception and was only increased to congruent audio-visual stimuli 30-70 msec following consonant onset.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest left hemisphere prominence in the effects of stimulus and response conditions on eight brain areas involved in dynamically distributed parallel processing of audio-visual integration. Initially (30-70 msec) subcortical contributions to auditory cortex, superior parietal cortex, and middle temporal cortex occur. During 100-140 msec, peristriate visual influences and Wernicke's area join in the processing. Resolution of incongruent audio-visual inputs is then attempted, and if successful, McGurk perception occurs and cortical activity in left hemisphere further increases between 170 and 260 msec.

Negative Word Production in Adults With Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: Effects of Implicit Assessment and Contextual Bias

PURPOSE

Both theory and evidence suggest that unilateral right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) should impair the processing of negative emotions. Typical metalinguistic assessments, however, may obscure processing strengths. This study investigated whether adults with RHD would produce proportionately fewer negative emotion words than control participants in an implicit assessment task and whether a negatively toned contextual bias would enhance performance.

METHODS

Eleven participants with RHD and 10 control participants without brain damage watched a video in 2 parts and described each segment. Between segments, participants evaluated the emotion conveyed by sentences designed to induce the negative bias.

RESULTS

The primary outcome measure, percentage of negative emotion words in video descriptions, did not differ between groups. After the contextual bias, this measure significantly increased for both groups, whereas production of motion words, a control variable, remained constant.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings are consistent with a view that attributes some deficient RHD performances to the nature and/or demands of explicit metalinguistic assessment tasks. These results call for modulation of prevailing hypotheses that attribute negative emotion processing as an undifferentiated whole solely to the right cerebral hemisphere. The results also further substantiate the rationale of an experimental treatment that exploits contextual bias and priming for individuals with RHD.

Compensating for age limits through emotional crossmodal integration

Social interactions in daily life necessitate the integration of social signals from different sensory modalities. In the aging literature, it is well established that the recognition of emotion in facial expressions declines with advancing age, and this also occurs with vocal expressions. By contrast, crossmodal integration processing in healthy aging individuals is less documented. Here, we investigated the age-related effects on emotion recognition when faces and voices were presented alone or simultaneously, allowing for crossmodal integration. In this study, 31 young adults (M = 25.8 years) and 31 older adults (M = 67.2 years) were instructed to identify several basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust) and a neutral expression, which were displayed as visual (facial expressions), auditory (non-verbal affective vocalizations) or crossmodal (simultaneous, congruent facial and vocal affective expressions) stimuli. The results showed that older adults performed slower and worse than younger adults at recognizing negative emotions from isolated faces and voices. In the crossmodal condition, although slower, older adults were as accurate as younger except for anger. Importantly, additional analyses using the "race model" demonstrate that older adults benefited to the same extent as younger adults from the combination of facial and vocal emotional stimuli. These results help explain some conflicting results in the literature and may clarify emotional abilities related to daily life that are partially spared among older adults.

Altered Medial Frontal and Superior Temporal Response to Implicit Processing of Emotions in Autism

Interpreting emotional expressions appropriately poses a challenge for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In particular, difficulties with emotional processing in ASD are more pronounced in contexts where emotional expressions are subtle, automatic, and reflexive-that is, implicit. In contrast, explicit emotional processing, which requires the cognitive evaluation of an emotional experience, appears to be relatively intact in individuals with ASD. In the present study, we examined the brain activation and functional connectivity differences underlying explicit and implicit emotional processing in age- and IQ-matched adults with (n = 17) and without (n = 15) ASD. Results indicated: (1) significantly reduced levels of brain activation in participants with ASD in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) during implicit emotion processing; (2) significantly weaker functional connectivity in the ASD group in connections of the MPFC with the amygdala, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and fusiform gyrus; (3) No group difference in performance accuracy or reaction time; and (4) Significant positive relationship between empathizing ability and STG activity in ASD but not in typically developing participants. These findings suggest that the neural mechanisms underlying implicit, but not explicit, emotion processing may be altered at multiple levels in individuals with ASD.

Sadness is unique: neural processing of emotions in speech prosody in musicians and non-musicians

Musical training has been shown to have positive effects on several aspects of speech processing, however, the effects of musical training on the neural processing of speech prosody conveying distinct emotions are yet to be better understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether the neural responses to speech prosody conveying happiness, sadness, and fear differ between musicians and non-musicians. Differences in processing of emotional speech prosody between the two groups were only observed when sadness was expressed. Musicians showed increased activation in the middle frontal gyrus, the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and the retrosplenial cortex. Our results suggest an increased sensitivity of emotional processing in musicians with respect to sadness expressed in speech, possibly reflecting empathic processes.