title: Decoding the neural representation of affective states.
abstract: Brain activity was monitored while participants viewed picture sets that reflected high or low levels of arousal and positive, neutral, or negative valence. Pictures within a set were presented rapidly in an incidental viewing task while fMRI data were collected. The primary purpose of the study was to determine if multi-voxel pattern analysis could be used within and between participants to predict valence, arousal and combined affective states elicited by pictures based on distributed patterns of whole brain activity. A secondary purpose was to determine if distributed patterns of whole brain activity can be used to derive a lower dimensional representation of affective states consistent with behavioral data. Results demonstrated above chance prediction of valence, arousal and affective states that was robust across a wide range of number of voxels used in prediction. Additionally, individual differences multidimensional scaling based on fMRI data clearly separated valence and arousal levels and was consistent with a circumplex model of affective states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
authors.forename: Laura B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Baucom
authors.forename: Douglas H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wedell
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Blitzer
authors.forename: Svetlana V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Shinkareva
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male