title: Involvement of Sensory Regions in Affective Experience: A Meta-Analysis.
abstract: A growing body of work suggests that sensory processes may also contribute to affective experience. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of affective experiences driven through visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory stimulus modalities including study contrasts that compared affective stimuli to matched neutral control stimuli. We found, first, that limbic and paralimbic regions, including the amygdala, anterior insula, pre-supplementary motor area, and portions of orbitofrontal cortex were consistently engaged across two or more modalities. Second, early sensory input regions in occipital, temporal, piriform, mid-insular, and primary sensory cortex were frequently engaged during affective experiences driven by visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory inputs. A classification analysis demonstrated that the pattern of neural activity across a contrast map diagnosed the stimulus modality driving the affective experience. These findings suggest that affective experiences are constructed from activity that is distributed across limbic and paralimbic brain regions and also activity in sensory cortical regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Pomona College, Claremont CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ajay B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Satpute
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Atlanta GA, USA.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Bickart
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, USA ; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, USA.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yardley
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, USA.
authors.forename: Tor D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Wager
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston MA, USA ; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Barrett
keywords: affect; emotion; fMRI; meta-analysis; perception