title: Neural control of vascular reactions: impact of emotion and attention.
abstract: This study investigated the neural regions involved in blood pressure reactions to negative stimuli and their possible modulation by attention. Twenty-four healthy human subjects (11 females; age = 24.75 ± 2.49 years) participated in an affective perceptual load task that manipulated attention to negative/neutral distractor pictures. fMRI data were collected simultaneously with continuous recording of peripheral arterial blood pressure. A parametric modulation analysis examined the impact of attention and emotion on the relation between neural activation and blood pressure reactivity during the task. When attention was available for processing the distractor pictures, negative pictures resulted in behavioral interference, neural activation in brain regions previously related to emotion, a transient decrease of blood pressure, and a positive correlation between blood pressure response and activation in a network including prefrontal and parietal regions, the amygdala, caudate, and mid-brain. These effects were modulated by attention; behavioral and neural responses to highly negative distractor pictures (compared with neutral pictures) were smaller or diminished, as was the negative blood pressure response when the central task involved high perceptual load. Furthermore, comparing high and low load revealed enhanced activation in frontoparietal regions implicated in attention control. Our results fit theories emphasizing the role of attention in the control of behavioral and neural reactions to irrelevant emotional distracting information. Our findings furthermore extend the function of attention to the control of autonomous reactions associated with negative emotions by showing altered blood pressure reactions to emotional stimuli, the latter being of potential clinical relevance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, 3498838 Haifa, Israel, Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, Mind Brain Institute at Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-University, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Charité University Hospital, 10117 Berlin, Germany, Machine Learning Group, Berlin Institute of Technology, 10587 Berlin, Germany, Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie, Département des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Université de Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche, pRED, Pharma Research and Early Development, DTA Neuroscience, 4070 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hadas
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okon-Singer
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mehnert
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hoyer
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hellrung
authors.forename: Herma Lina
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Schaare
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dukart
authors.forename: Arno
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villringer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D062186:Arterial Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation