Social attributes and individual differences may explain the variance in neural activation patterns to emotional stimuli.
We aim 1) to characterize neural activation patterns associated with processing social and nonsocial components of emotional stimuli 2) to determine the modulatory effects of individual factors in processing emotional stimuli varying in social content. Using 3T fMRI, the functional circuitry of social attributes of emotion will be studied using two block design neuroimaging experiments. An emotion activation paradigm inducing emotions with social and nonsocial attributes via video and picture segments will be utilized. Additionally, we will use blocks of two common classes of emotional stimuli, faces expressing discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger) and complex lAPS pictures (International Affective Picture System; Lang and Greenwald, 1983). Behavioral/psychophysiological experiments outside the scanner will develop and confirm these activation paradigms. Modulatory effects of personality traits including alexithymia, empathy, neuroticism, and extraversion will be determined. Investigating the interaction between individual factors and social content will advance our understanding of emotion and mental disorders.
| Britton, Jennifer C; Ho, Shao-Hsuan; Taylor, Stephan F et al. (2007) Neuroticism associated with neural activation patterns to positive stimuli. Psychiatry Res 156:263-7 |
| Britton, Jennifer C; Taylor, Stephan F; Sudheimer, Keith D et al. (2006) Facial expressions and complex IAPS pictures: common and differential networks. Neuroimage 31:906-19 |
