Exposure to subliminal arousing stimuli induces robust activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate, insular cortex and primary visual cortex: A systematic meta-analysis of fMRI studies

Abstract

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) demonstrates that the subliminal presentation of arousing stimuli can activate subcortical brain regions independently of consciousness-generating top-down cortical modulation loops. Delineating these processes may elucidate mechanisms for arousal, aberration in which may underlie some psychiatric conditions. Here we are the first to review and discuss four Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses of fMRI studies using subliminal paradigms. We find a maximum of 9 out of 12 studies using subliminal presentation of faces contributing to activation of the amygdala, and also a significantly high number of studies reporting activation in the bilateral anterior cingulate, bilateral insular cortex, hippocampus and primary visual cortex. Subliminal faces are the strongest modality, whereas lexical stimuli are the weakest. Meta-analyses independent of studies using Regions of Interest (ROI) revealed no biasing effect. Core neuronal arousal in the brain, which may be at first independent of conscious processing, potentially involves a network incorporating primary visual areas, somatosensory, implicit memory and conflict monitoring regions. These data could provide candidate brain regions for the study of psychiatric disorders associated with aberrant automatic emotional processing.

Differential activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex between male and female givers of social reputation

“…Furthermore, in the present study, the mean valence scores of the positive comments were significantly higher than those of the negative comments, whereas the mean arousal scores of the positive comments and negative comments were rated as similar. Thus, there is a possibility that the amygdala is involved in the processing of arousal rather than emotional valence induced by positive and negative social reputations, and this view is consistent with previous literature (Anderson et al, 2003;Brooks et al, 2012).…”

Probing emotional influences on cognitive control: an ALE meta-analysis of cognition emotion interactions

“…To control for multiple comparisons, the ALE-map was thresholded at a false discovery rate (FDR) of p<0.05, corrected. Whereas other recent metaanalyses have commonly used a minimal cluster size of 100 mm³ (Swick, Ashley et al 2011, van der Laan, de Ridder et al 2011, Veldhuizen, Albrecht et al 2011, Brooks, Savov et al 2012 we opted to use a slightly more conservative cluster size threshold of 200 mm³ (c.f. Owen, McMillan et al 2005, Diekhof, Geier et al 2011).…”

Acute neural effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors versus noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors on emotion processing: Implications for differential treatment efficacy

“…With antidepressant treatment, these activations are normalised (Arnone et al, 2012;Delaveau et al, 2011;Godlewska et al, 2012). Other brain areas implicated in the mood and anxiety disorders are: the insula, linked to self-awareness and autonomic regulation of emotions (Craig, 2009;Paulus and Stein, 2006); the hippocampus, involved in memory formation, learning, sensitivity to context, and regulation of stress, as well as a major site of neurogenesis (Bellani et al, 2010;Brooks et al, 2012;den Heijer et al, 2012); the thalamus, a processing centre for sensation and motor regulation, which also plays a role in awareness, attention, memory, and language (Herrero et al, 2002;Matsumoto et al, 2001); the cingulate cortex, involved in the regulation of both cognitive and emotional processing with functions in directed attention and motivated behaviour (Amiez et al, 2012;Blair et al, 2012;Bush et al, 2000;Etkin et al, 2011); and the superior temporal gyrus (STG), implicated not only in auditory processes, but also in language processing, social cognition, and emotion perception in faces (Bigler et al, 2007;Domínguez-Borràs et al, 2009;Turk-Browne et al, 2010). Furthermore, research on the treatment of affective disorders has demonstrated that treatment restores the function of these regions (e.g., Arce et al, 2007;Korb et al, 2011).…”