Cerebral Correlates of Emotional and Action Appraisals During Visual Processing of Emotional Scenes Depending on Spatial Frequency: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Visual processing of emotional stimuli critically depends on the type of cognitive appraisal involved. The present fMRI pilot study aimed to investigate the cerebral correlates involved in the visual processing of emotional scenes in two tasks, one emotional, based on the appraisal of personal emotional experience, and the other motivational, based on the appraisal of the tendency to action. Given that the use of spatial frequency information is relatively flexible during the visual processing of emotional stimuli depending on the task’s demands, we also explored the effect of the type of spatial frequency in visual stimuli in each task by using emotional scenes filtered in low spatial frequency (LSF) and high spatial frequencies (HSF). Activation was observed in the visual areas of the fusiform gyrus for all emotional scenes in both tasks, and in the amygdala for unpleasant scenes only. The motivational task induced additional activation in frontal motor-related areas (e.g. premotor cortex, SMA) and parietal regions (e.g. superior and inferior parietal lobules). Parietal regions were recruited particularly during the motivational appraisal of approach in response to pleasant scenes. These frontal and parietal activations, respectively, suggest that motor and navigation processes play a specific role in the identification of the tendency to action in the motivational task. Furthermore, activity observed in the motivational task, in response to both pleasant and unpleasant scenes, was significantly greater for HSF than for LSF scenes, suggesting that the tendency to action is driven mainly by the detailed information contained in scenes. Results for the emotional task suggest that spatial frequencies play only a small role in the evaluation of unpleasant and pleasant emotions. Our preliminary study revealed a partial distinction between visual processing of emotional scenes during identification of the tendency to action, and during identification of personal emotional experiences. It also illustrates flexible use of the spatial frequencies contained in scenes depending on their emotional valence and on task demands.

How does information from low and high spatial frequencies interact during scene categorization?

“…First, numerous studies have previously shown that, although LSF information is preferentially used at short exposure duration to enable efficient and rapid scene categorization, it does not follow that it is always used first to support visual recognition. Indeed, and as suggested by our results, HSF can also be extracted very early in the visual processing timecourse, and their preferential use would be determined by the demands of the visual task (Campagne et al, 2016;Harel & Bentin, 2009;Morrison & Schyns, 2001;Oliva & Schyns, 1997;Ozgen et al, 2006;Rotshtein et al, 2010;Schyns, 1998;Schyns & Oliva, 1994. For example, in Schyns and Oliva (1994), the perception of hybrids at short exposure duration of 30 ms was dominated by the HSF scene in 28% of the trials.…”

“…Although the prominent role of LSF information for rapid scene categorization has been extensively investigated and documented Schyns & Oliva, 1994; for a review see Hegdé, 2008;Kauffmann et al, 2014), there is also considerable experimental evidence of a predominant processing of HSF information even for very short stimuli exposure duration (Campagne et al, 2016;Harel & Bentin, 2009;Morrison & Schyns, 2001;Rotshtein, Schofield, Funes, & Humphreys, 2010;Schyns, 1998;Schyns & Oliva, 1999). Furthermore, many studies have shown that the use of spatial frequency information during the processing of complex stimuli such as scenes is highly flexible and depends on many factors such as stimulus exposure duration (Schyns & Oliva, 1994), category (e.g., Awasthi, Sowman, Friedman, & Williams, 2013;Collin & McMullen, 2005;Rotshtein et al, 2010;Vannucci, Viggiano, & Argenti, 2001), or task constraints (Abrams, Barbot, & Carrasco, 2010;Campagne et al, 2016;Caplette, West, Gomot, Gosselin, & Wicker, 2014;Fradcourt, Peyrin, Baciu, & Campagne, 2013;Morrison & Schyns, 2001;Ozgen, Payne, Sowden, & Schyns, 2006;Schyns & Oliva, 1999;Sowden, Özgen, Schyns, & Daoutis, 2003). For example, different spatial frequency bands would be used according to their diagnosticity to categorize a specific visual stimulus.…”

Different Brain Activation after Acupuncture at Combined Acupoints and Single Acupoint in Hypertension Patients: An Rs-fMRI Study Based on ReHo Analysis

“…Both BAs 18 and 30 are located in the occipital lobe, whose primary structure is visual cortex center. Some researches indicated that visual cortex was associated with emotional activity and modulation [42, 43]. In view of the insufficient researches discussing the relationship between the occipital lobe and the improvement of clinical symptoms on patients with hypertension, we suppose that acupuncture at combined acupoints altered more brain regions.…”

Making the Sentencing Case: Psychological and Neuroscientific Evidence for Expanding the Age of Youthful Offenders

“…Given these dynamic changes in subcortical and cortical circuits, as well as plasticity and the potential for change in the brain over the life course, there have been admirable attempts to develop a maturational index of the brain, similar to growth curves for height and weight (Brown et al 2012, Campagne et al 2016, Dosenbach et al 2010. For example, Brown and colleagues (2012) examined MRI-based structural changes in the brain to measure maturation in more than 800 three-to twenty-year-olds who were imaged at nine different sites (Figure 3a).…”