Affective perception and imagery: a NIRS study.
Abstract
The activation of cortical attention networks during affective picture processing has been extensively studied, whereas little is known about affective imagery. It is still unclear whether differences in emotional stimulus content are able to modulate visual cortex activation during imagery. Moreover, individual differences in emotional reactivity and imagery ability have not been investigated. The aim of this experiment was to examine these processes by means of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Thirty-five healthy adults were instructed to look at affective (disgust and happy) and neutral pictures and afterwards visualize them during multi-channel NIRS recording. Our main results indicated a differential involvement of parietal and occipital areas in the perception and imagery of affective pictures. In general, picture perception provoked increased oxygenated hemoglobin in occipital regions, whereas imagery was associated with an increase in parietal areas. Emotional content modulated activation of the left occipital cortex during both picture perception and imagery. Affective pictures (disgust and happy) provoked greater activation compared to neutral ones. Additionally, the self-rated imagery ability of the participants was positively correlated with their occipital activation during affective imagery. Thus, occipital activation might be crucial for the quality of imagery. In contrast, all correlations with emotional traits (e.g. trait disgust) and oxygenation were nonsignificant, which might be due to the fact that those personality factors predominantly modulate the activation of subcortical limbic structures which are not accessible with NIRS.
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Humans do not necessarily require physical reward cues; vivid imagery about the reward may be enough to trigger limbic brain activations of incentive salience in people that would require cues in animals.
“Humans don’t necessarily require physical reward cues – vivid imagery about the reward may be enough to trigger limbic brain activations of incentive salience in people that would require cues in animals (May et al., 2004; Kochel et al., 2011; Jauregui-Lobera et al., 2012; Miyapuram et al., 2012).”
From Evolving Concepts of Emotion and Motivation (2018) · cites this paper as Kochel et al., 2011
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- Authors
- Köchel, A., Plichta, M. M., Schäfer, A., Leutgeb, V., Scharmüller, W., Fallgatter, A. J., & Schienle, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Graz (AT)
- Central Institute of Mental Health (DE)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Köchel, Angelika
- Venue
- International Journal of Psychophysiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 80
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 192-197
- ISSN
- 0167-8760 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2024844166
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- affective imagery, visual cortex activation, occipital cortex, parietal cortex, emotional reactivity, emotional valence, oxyhemoglobin, near-infrared spectroscopy
- MeSH terms
- Carbamide Peroxide, Adult, Affect, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Limbic System, Male, Peroxides, Photic Stimulation, Urea, Visual Cortex, Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared, Young Adult
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