title: Mapping the apetitive and aversive systems with emotional pictures using a block-design fMRI procedure.
abstract: Negative emotional pictures from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS) have been successful in mapping brain areas related to the aversive system. However, the capacity of positive emotional pictures to study the brain areas related to the appetitive system (i.e., nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex) is less established. In this study, we used a block fMRI design to investigate this issue, including emotional pictures as background while participants performed a vowel-consonant discrimination task. Importantly, participants were heterosexual males and all positive pictures were related to erotic couples, opposite-sex erotica, or romantic scenes. Negative pictures were similar to those used in previous studies. Results were consistent with previous studies using event-related designs, showing activation of amygdala, lateral prefrontal cortex, and occipito-temporal areas, but positive pictures showed a significant activation in the left nucleus accumbens. These findings provide evidence of the utility of block designs in emotional research (positive emotional pictures).
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales,Universitat Jaume I de Castellón, Castellón, Spain.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Meseguer
authors.forename: María J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barrós-Loscertales
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Belloch
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bosch-Morell
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: César
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Avila
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D004924:Escape Reaction; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000378:metabolism*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000378:metabolism; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism; D014796:Visual Perception