Dissociable meta‐analytic brain networks contribute to coordinated emotional processing

Abstract

Meta-analytic techniques for mining the neuroimaging literature continue to exert an impact on our conceptualization of functional brain networks contributing to human emotion and cognition. Traditional theories regarding the neurobiological substrates contributing to affective processing are shifting from regional- towards more network-based heuristic frameworks. To elucidate differential brain network involvement linked to distinct aspects of emotion processing, we applied an emergent meta-analytic clustering approach to the extensive body of affective neuroimaging results archived in the BrainMap database. Specifically, we performed hierarchical clustering on the modeled activation maps from 1,747 experiments in the affective processing domain, resulting in five meta-analytic groupings of experiments demonstrating whole-brain recruitment. Behavioral inference analyses conducted for each of these groupings suggested dissociable networks supporting: (1) visual perception within primary and associative visual cortices, (2) auditory perception within primary auditory cortices, (3) attention to emotionally salient information within insular, anterior cingulate, and subcortical regions, (4) appraisal and prediction of emotional events within medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, and (5) induction of emotional responses within amygdala and fusiform gyri. These meta-analytic outcomes are consistent with a contemporary psychological model of affective processing in which emotionally salient information from perceived stimuli are integrated with previous experiences to engender a subjective affective response. This study highlights the utility of using emergent meta-analytic methods to inform and extend psychological theories and suggests that emotions are manifest as the eventual consequence of interactions between large-scale brain networks.

Reduced gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex is associated with greater body mass index: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

“…For instance, a meta-analysis 27 using the Neurosynth database to parcellate the medial frontal cortex showed that the anterior zone, which includes Brodmann's Area 10 and Brodmann's Area 11, is associated with affective processing, including fear processing. Another large-scale meta-analysis using experiments from the Brainmap database 69 showed that Brodmann's Area 10 is associated with attention to emotionally salient information. Consistent with this, a meta-analytic connectivity modeling study 29 showed that that medial orbitofrontal cortex, which includes Brodmann's Area 10 and 11, was coactive with the ventral striatum, amygdala and hippocampus.…”

Multiple large-scale neural networks underlying emotion regulation

“…However, this view commonly suggests that multiple neural systems interact in emotion perception and generation, which are modulated by and themselves influence regulatory systems. In terms of neural implementation, it is suggested that these systems rely on large-scale networks (Barrett, 2017;Bressler and Menon, 2010;Riedel et al, 2018;Sripada et al, 2014).…”

“…While such an approach targets the specific aspect of regulation, it is not sensitive to the broader interactive process of ER embedded in a hierarchical organization of emotion perception, generation and regulation. Thus, it cannot inform the large-scale networklevel perspective of emotion processing (Barrett, 2017;Bressler and Menon, 2010;Riedel et al, 2018;Sripada et al, 2014). Second, due to inferential limitations of conventional meta-analyses (Poldrack and Yarkoni, 2016) the specificity of brain-cognition associations i.e.…”

“…By using an established meta-analytic clustering technique (Bottenhorn et al, 2017;Flannery et al, 2020;Laird et al, 2015;Riedel et al, 2018) in the present study, we aimed to overcome firstly the limitation of not being able to segregate multicomponent processes and associated neural networks by tapping into subtle differences in the implementation of fairly standardized emotion regulation tasks and different strategies across a large body of studies. In the present study, we adopted a preferably broad conceptualization of cognitive control of emotions and included a variety of emotion regulation strategies (i.e., distraction, reappraisal, suppression) in combination with different regulation goals (i.e.…”

Meta-analytic clustering dissociates brain activity and behavior profiles across reward processing paradigms

“…Given that reward processing studies utilize a variety of complex tasks, task modeling approaches, and theoretical frameworks, it has been difficult to synthesize a quantitative summary of consistent associations between cognitive constructs and brain function. Emerging metaanalytic techniques have proven helpful in synthesizing neuroimaging findings across disperse experimental sites and diverse scientific approaches (Bottenhorn et al, 2019;Bzdok et al, 2015;Bzdok et al, 2013a;Bzdok et al, 2013b;Clos et al, 2013;Eickhoff et al, 2016;Laird et al, 2015;Ray et al, 2015;Riedel et al, 2018). Utilizing these techniques, we aimed to elucidate brain regions, and in turn networks, consistently linked with different aspects of reward processing.…”