Differences in Brain Hemodynamics in Response to Achromatic and Chromatic Cards of the Rorschach

Abstract

Abstract. In order to investigate the effects of color stimuli of the Rorschach inkblot method (RIM), the cerebral activity of 40 participants with no history of neurological or psychiatric illness was scanned while they engaged in the Rorschach task. A scanned image of the ten RIM inkblots was projected onto a screen in the MRI scanner. Cerebral activation in response to five achromatic color cards and five chromatic cards were compared. As a result, a significant increase in brain activity was observed in bilateral visual areas V2 and V3, parietooccipital junctions, pulvinars, right superior temporal gyrus, and left premotor cortex for achromatic color cards (p < .001). For the cards with chromatic color, significant increase in brain activity was observed in left visual area V4 and left orbitofrontal cortex (p < .001). Furthermore, a conjoint analysis revealed various regions were activated in responding to the RIM. The neuropsychological underpinnings of the response process, as described by Acklin and Wu-Holt (1996), were largely confirmed.

Can Neuroscience Provide a New Foundation for the Rorschach Variables?

“…Interestingly, the location of the temporo-parietal activation (Brodmann area [BA] 22) shown in the study is very close to the ROI in the superior temporal gyrus, which showed high significance in the fMRI study by Giromini, Viglione, Vitolo, et al (2019), suggesting that MNS might overlap with the neural network involving theory of mind. The participants were administered the Rorschach Test on a separate day from the fMRI experiment in the same procedure as is described in another report (Jimura, Konishi, Asari, et al, 2009). Following on from this published study, we have reanalyzed the imaging data to investigate whether movement determinants correlated with brain activity during understanding others' mental states (see Author Notes).…”

“…To investigate whether there is a correlation between Sum C' and the brain activity associated with negative emotion, an fMRI study was conducted (Jimura, Konishi, Asari, et al, 2009) using the motion prediction task to evoke the brain activation associated with negative emotion. In this task, participants were required to predict whether a moving dot on the screen would reach the goal within the time limit.…”

“…The non-Rorschach literature indicates that the rostral part of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (rdmPFC) is activated when negative feedback is presented for a certain behavior (Monchi et al, 2001;Konishi et al, 2002;Ullsperger & Von Cramon, 2003), and rdmPFC activity is thought to reflect both the negative emotions and cognitive aspect of adaptive behavioral regulation triggered by feedback (Jimura et al, 2004;Ullsperger & Von Cramon, 2003). To test the hypothesis that SumC' is correlated with brain activation related to negative emotion, we measured brain activity while participants performed a motion prediction task, where positive or negative feedback was presented depending on success or failure of the prediction (Figure 2A; Jimura, Konishi, Asari, et al, 2009;Ullsperger & Von Cramon, 2003). When participants received negative feedback compared with positive feedback, rdmPFC showed greater activity (Figure 2B).…”

Stimulus Features of the Object Relations Technique Affecting the Linguistic Qualities of Individuals’ Narratives

“…For example, chromatic cards have been found to produce a higher number of responses, a longer reaction time, and to be evaluated as more pleasant or unpleasant than achromatic ones. They also tend to elicit more emotionally charged contents and have been found to be more likely to activate the left orbitofrontal cortex—widely involved in emotion regulation—than the achromatic cards (Ishibashi et al 2016 ).…”

Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy Detects Prefrontal Activities During Rorschach Inkblot Method

“…Results suggested positive effects of the amygdala on the relationship between the left anterior prefrontal and the right temporal pole and negative effects on the relationship between the right temporal pole and occipitotemporal regions. Ishibashi et al () examined the effects of color stimuli of RIM. As a result, in achromatic cords, a significant increase in brain activity was observed in relatively many areas, including the bilateral medial occipital gyrus, the bilateral pulvinars, and the right temporal gyrus, which were supposed to relate to attention to contour and shapes, while, in chromatic cards, a significant increase was observed in the left lingual gyrus and the left orbitofrontal cortex, which were considered to relate to color perception and its interference with visual processing.…”