title: A comparison of neural responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli in humans and other mammals.
abstract: Distinguishing potentially harmful or beneficial stimuli is necessary for the self-preservation and well-being of all organisms. This assessment requires the ongoing valuation of environmental stimuli. Despite much work on the processing of aversive- and appetitive-related brain signals, it is not clear to what degree these two processes interact across the brain. To help clarify this issue, this report used a cross-species comparative approach in humans (i.e. meta-analysis of imaging data) and other mammals (i.e. targeted review of functional neuroanatomy in rodents and non-human primates). Human meta-analysis results suggest network components that appear selective for appetitive (e.g. ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral tegmental area) or aversive (e.g. cingulate/supplementary motor cortex, periaqueductal grey) processing, or that reflect overlapping (e.g. anterior insula, amygdala) or asymmetrical, i.e. apparently lateralized, activity (e.g. orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum). However, a closer look at the known value-related mechanisms from the animal literature suggests that all of these macroanatomical regions are involved in the processing of both appetitive and aversive stimuli. Differential spatiotemporal network dynamics may help explain similarities and differences in appetitive- and aversion-related activity.
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, 1145 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Canada; Toronto Western Research Institute, Brain, Imaging and Behaviour - Systems Neuroscience, University of Toronto, Division of Neurosurgery, 399 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada. Electronic address: dave.hayes@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Dave J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, 1145 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Canada; Department of Biology, University of Carleton, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Canada; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, 276 Lishui Lu, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Niall W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, 1145 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Jiameng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, 1145 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Canada; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, 276 Lishui Lu, Hangzhou, China; Taipei Medical University, Shuang Ho Hospital, Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; National Chengchi University, Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Northoff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
keywords: Affective neuroscience; Aversion; Electrophysiology; Emotion; Human; Meta-analysis; Monkey; Motivation; Mouse; Neuroimaging; Punishment; Rat; Reinforcement; Reward; Valence; fMRI