title: The brain mechanism that reduces the vividness of negative imagery.
abstract: The present study attempts to locate brain regions that are related to vividness control, a hypothesized mechanism that reduces the vividness of negative imagery by controlling memory retrieval and emotion processing. The results showed that BOLD response in the left posterior cingulate gyrus in the negative imagery condition, in which activation of vividness control mechanisms was considered to be strong, was greater than that in the positive imagery condition, in which the activation of control mechanisms was considered to be weak. Moreover, the activation of this region negatively correlated with the subjective vividness of negative imagery. These results support the idea that the posterior cingulate gyrus may be involved in the suppression of imagery generation. Several previous studies have suggested that the posterior cingulate cortex is involved in both memory and emotion processing. Therefore, the current results indicate that the posterior cingulate gyrus may function as the vividness control mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 0600810, Japan. Electronic address: hiroki.motoyama.m@vc.ibaraki.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Motoyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, Kita 10, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 0600810, Japan. Electronic address: hishitani@let.hokudai.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Shinsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hishitani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotion; Mental imagery; Posterior cingulate gyrus; Suppression; Vividness