title: Neurofunctional correlates of environmental cognition: an FMRI study with images from episodic memory.
abstract: This study capitalizes on individual episodic memories to investigate the question, how dif-ferent environments affect us on a neural level. Instead of using predefined environmental stimuli, this study relied on individual representations of beauty and pleasure. Drawing upon episodic memories we conducted two experiments. Healthy subjects imagined pleasant and non-pleasant environments, as well as beautiful and non-beautiful environments while neural activity was measured by using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Although subjects found the different conditions equally simple to visualize, our results revealed more distribut-ed brain activations for non-pleasant and non-beautiful environments than for pleasant and beautiful environments. The additional regions activated in non-pleasant (left lateral prefrontal cortex) and non-beautiful environments (supplementary motor area, anterior cortical midline structures) are involved in self-regulation and top-down cognitive control. Taken together, the results show that perceptual experiences and emotional evaluations of environments within a positive and a negative frame of reference are based on distinct patterns of neural activity. We interpret the data in terms of a different cognitive and processing load placed by exposure to different environments. The results hint at the efficiency of subject-generated representations as stimulus material.
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute of Sociology, (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology, (LMU), Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Pullach, Germany.
authors: Aline
authors: A
authors: Vedder
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany.
authors: Lukasz
authors: L
authors: Smigielski
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology, (LMU), Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Pullach, Germany.
authors: Evgeny
authors: E
authors: Gutyrchik
authors: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China; Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Pullach, Germany.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Bao
authors: Institute of Clinical Radiology, (LMU), Munich, Germany.
authors: Janusch
authors: J
authors: Blautzik
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology, (LMU), Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Pullach, Germany; Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors: Ernst
authors: E
authors: Pöppel
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology, (LMU), Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Pullach, Germany; Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, Moscow, Russia.
authors: Yuliya
authors: Y
authors: Zaytseva
authors: Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Department of History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States of America.
authors: Edmund
authors: E
authors: Russell
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D057181:Pleasure / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult