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Abstract:
The prefrontal cortex and amygdala participate in processing
emotions. EEG and lesion data have demonstrated a differential role
of the prefrontal cortex in processing emotional valence, with
preferential processing of pleasant emotions on the left side, and
unpleasant emotions on the right side. We investigated the
processing of pleasant and unpleasant emotional feelings at the
single-unit level, by recording from two left and one right
prefrontal cortices in three subjects with implanted depth
electrodes.
The subjects viewed emotional movie clips that elicited
feelings of happiness, fear, anger, disgust, or sadness (and a
neutral control) in control subjects. Multiple tetrode contacts
permitted cluster isolation of approximately 100 neurons per
subject from several spatially separate sites. Recordings in the
right prefrontal cortex showed modulated firing rates for fear,
disgust and sadness, whereas sites in left prefrontal cortex showed
increased firing rates only for happiness. Additional recordings
from left and right amygdala in one subject revealed the opposite
pattern: activity in right amygdala was modulated by happiness,
whereas activity in left amygdala was modulated by disgust and
fear. This suggests a crossed lateralization in processing
emotional valence in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Supported
by grants to R.A. from the Klingenstein Fund, the EJLB Foundation,
and the Center for Consciousness Studies.
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