title: Neural correlates of affective priming effects based on masked facial emotion: an fMRI study.
abstract: Affective priming refers to the phenomenon that subliminal presentation of facial emotion biases subsequent evaluation of a neutral object in the direction of the prime. The aim of the present study was to specify the neural correlates of evaluative shifts elicited by facial emotion shown below the threshold of conscious perception. We tested the hypotheses whether the amygdala is involved in negative priming, whereas the nucleus accumbens participates in positive priming. In addition, exploratory whole brain correlation analyses were conducted. During 3T fMRI scanning, pictures of sad, happy, and neutral facial expression masked by neutral faces were presented to 110 healthy adults who had to judge valence of masks on a four-point scale. There was evidence for significant negative priming based on sad faces. A correlation was observed between amygdala activation and negative priming. Activation in medial, middle, and superior frontal and middle temporo-occipital areas, and insula was also associated with negative priming. No significant priming based on happy faces was found. However, nucleus accumbens activation to happy faces correlated with the positive priming score. The present findings confirm that the amygdala but also other brain regions, especially the medial frontal cortex, appear involved in automatically elicited negative evaluative shifts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr. 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Thomas.Suslow@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suslow
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kugel
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ohrmann
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stuhrmann
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grotegerd
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Redlich
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dannlowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen