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Abstract:
According to recent theories of emotions, emotional
information processing is necessarily coupled with cognitive
processing. Instead of ignoring cognitive processes by trying to
isolate pure emotions we think it rationale to control for
cognition under emotional stimulation. We devoloped a new paradigm
combining emotional stimulation with a cognitive task. Here we
present first results of a fMRI pilot study. Emotional stimulation
was achieved by showing pictures from the International Affective
Picture System with different emotional valence (positive,
negative, neutral). Briefly thereafter, a semantic decision task
was presented. Main effects for picture representation and decision
task showed activation of occipital areas for both events and
predominantly left hemisphere activation in language related areas
for the decision task. There was a main effect of emotion for the
combined activity of picture presentation and decision making.
Positive stimulation elicited markedly less activation than neutral
stimulation in left and right parietal areas and right more than
left prefrontal cortex. Negative stimulation also elicited markedly
less activity than neutral stimulation but only in right
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In right DLPFC this effect
was due to the emotional modulated decision task and not to
emotional stimulation per se. We conclude that emotional
stimulation does modulate cognitive activity depending on the
valence of the stimuli.
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