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Abstract:
The orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala participate in
processing emotion, but the details of such processing in humans
are poorly understood, especially at the single-neuron level. We
recorded single-cell activity from 5 patients with chronically
implanted depth electrodes located in medial and lateral ventral
prefrontal cortex and amygdala. The awake subjects passively viewed
pictures of emotional scenes and of facial expressions. Multiple
contacts permitted isolation of 217 neurons from ventral prefrontal
cortex and 110 neurons from amygdala using the DataWave system, and
responses were analyzed in relation to emotion category of the
stimuli. Cross-correlation analysis revealed elicitation of
synchronous activity among prefrontal cortical neurons in response
to aversive stimuli, but not to pleasant or neutral stimuli.
Furthermore, aversive emotional stimuli evoked synchronization of
responses between ventromedial prefrontal and amygdala neurons .
The findings provide further detail regarding the processing of
emotion in the human brain: 1)prefrontal and amygdala responses
were greatest for aversive stimuli, 2)responses were in part
temporally encoded, and 3) these two structures appear functionally
connected. Supported by grants to R.A. from the Klingenstein Fund,
the EJLB Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Center for
Consciousness Studies.
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