title: Population coding of affect across stimuli, modalities and individuals.
abstract: It remains unclear how the brain represents external objective sensory events alongside our internal subjective impressions of them--affect. Representational mapping of population activity evoked by complex scenes and basic tastes in humans revealed a neural code supporting a continuous axis of pleasant-to-unpleasant valence. This valence code was distinct from low-level physical and high-level object properties. Although ventral temporal and anterior insular cortices supported valence codes specific to vision and taste, both the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortices (OFC) maintained a valence code independent of sensory origin. Furthermore, only the OFC code could classify experienced affect across participants. The entire valence spectrum was represented as a collective pattern in regional neural activity as sensory-specific and abstract codes, whereby the subjective quality of affect can be objectively quantified across stimuli, modalities and people.
authors: Human Neuroscience Institute, Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
authors: Junichi
authors: J
authors: Chikazoe
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Daniel H
authors: DH
authors: Lee
authors: Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors: Nikolaus
authors: N
authors: Kriegeskorte
authors: 1] Human Neuroscience Institute, Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. [2] Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Adam K
authors: AK
authors: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult