Parietal somatosensory association cortex mediates affective blindsight.
To investigate the neural substrates underlying emotional feelings in the absence of a conscious stimulus percept, we presented a visual stimulus in the blind field of partially cortically blind patients and measured cortical activity (by functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) before and after the stimulus had been paired with an aversive event. After pairing, self-reported negative emotional valence and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses in somatosensory association areas were enhanced, whereby somatosensory activity predicted highly corresponding reported feelings and startle reflex amplitudes across subjects. Our data provide direct evidence that cortical activity representing physical emotional states governs emotional feelings.
Anders
Silke
S
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Gartenstrasse 29, 72074 Tuebingen, Germany. silke.anders@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Birbaumer
Niels
N
Sadowski
Bettina
B
Erb
Michael
M
Mader
Irina
I
Grodd
Wolfgang
W
Lotze
Martin
M
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001244:Association; D019575:Blindness, Cortical / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology