Amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect

Abstract

Humans routinely integrate affective information from multiple sources. For example, we rarely interpret an emotional facial expression devoid of context. Here, we describe the neural correlates of an affective computation that involves integrating multiple sources, by leveraging the ambiguity and subtle feature-based valence signals found in surprised faces.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants reported the valence of surprised faces modulated by positive or negative sentences. Amygdala activity corresponded to the valence value assigned to each contextually modulated face, with greater activity reflecting more negative ratings. Amygdala activity did not track the valence of the faces or sentences per se.Moreover, the amygdala was functionally coupled with the nucleus accumbens only during face trials preceded by positive contextual cues. These data suggest 1) valence-related amygdala activity reflects the integrated valence values rather than the valence values of each individual component, and 2) amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect.

Interoception Primes Emotional Processing: Multimodal Evidence from Neurodegeneration

“…Also, since the task required a tripartite (positive/neutral/negative) categorization ( Rosen et al, 2004 ; Fernandez-Duque and Black, 2005 ; Kipps et al, 2009 ), and considering the relatively low number of trials per emotion and the need guarantee adequate signal-to noise ratios for EEG data, different negative emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness) were not assessed individually. Moreover, the valence of “surprise” may prove ambiguous, prompting both positive and negative interpretations ( M. J. Kim et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Petro et al, 2018 ). Future tasks could tackle these shortcomings and provide more fine-grained results for each emotion individually.…”

Corticostriatal Responses to Social Reward are Linked to Trait Reward Sensitivity and Subclinical Substance Use in Young Adults

“…Second, substance use was related to decreased VS-dmPFC connectivity for social rewards, further reinforcing that increased substance use may be related to altered ability to process social information. Striatal connectivity has been linked to interpreting others’ facial expressions (Kim et al, 2020), and the dmPFC has been implicated in social cognitive functions during receipt of social feedback (e.g., Ferrari et al, 2016), in prediction error during social learning (Joiner et al, 2017; Suzuki et al, 2012), and in emotion regulation/cognitive control (Doré et al, 2017). We speculate that reduced VS-dmPFC connectivity during social reward may reflect impaired facility for assessing and reacting to feedback from others.…”

Research Review: The neuroscience of emerging adulthood – reward, ambiguity, and social support as building blocks of mental health

“…In both adults and in adolescents, individual differences in interpretations and tolerance for ambiguity are strongly associated with well‐being. On the one hand, negative appraisals of ambiguity have been linked to elevated anxiety and worse learning in uncertain contexts (Lamba, Frank, & FeldmanHall, 2020; Park, Vasey, Kim, Hu, & Thayer, 2016) – trends that may in part be explained by individual variability in the extent to which the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum regulate amygdala responses to ambiguity (Kim, Mattek, & Shin, 2020; Neta, Kelley, & Whalen, 2013). On the other hand, individuals who exhibit very high tolerance for ambiguity are more prone to reckless risk‐taking behavior (Blankenstein, Crone, van den Bos, & van Duijvenvoorde, 2016; Blankenstein, Schreuders, Peper, Crone, & van Duijvenvoorde, 2018).…”