title: Neural correlates of HIV risk feelings.
abstract: Field studies on HIV risk perception suggest that people rely on impressions they have about the safety of their partner. The present fMRI study investigated the neural correlates of the intuitive perception of risk. First, during an implicit condition, participants viewed a series of unacquainted persons and performed a task unrelated to HIV risk. In the following explicit condition, participants evaluated the HIV risk for each presented person. Contrasting responses for high and low HIV risk revealed that risky stimuli evoked enhanced activity in the anterior insula and medial prefrontal regions, which are involved in salience processing and frequently activated by threatening and negative affect-related stimuli. Importantly, neural regions responding to explicit HIV risk judgments were also enhanced in the implicit condition, suggesting a neural mechanism for intuitive impressions of riskiness. Overall, these findings suggest the saliency network as neural correlate for the intuitive sensing of risk.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany frank.haecker@uni-konstanz.de.
authors: Frank E K
authors: FE
authors: Häcker
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors: Ralf
authors: R
authors: Schmälzle
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors: Britta
authors: B
authors: Renner
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors: Harald T
authors: HT
authors: Schupp
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D019545:Intuition / Q000502:physiology; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012309:Risk-Taking; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: fMRI; feelings; implicit; intuition; risk