Amygdala reactivity in healthy adults is correlated with prefrontal cortical thickness
Open accessAbstract
Recent evidence suggests that putting feelings into words activates the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and suppresses the response of the amygdala, potentially helping to alleviate emotional distress. To further elucidate the relationship between brain structure and function in these regions, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were collected from a sample of 20 healthy human subjects. Structural MRI data were processed using cortical pattern-matching algorithms to produce spatially normalized maps of cortical thickness. During functional scanning, subjects cognitively assessed an emotional target face by choosing one of two linguistic labels (label emotion condition) or matched geometric forms (control condition). Manually prescribed regions of interest for the left amygdala were used to extract percentage signal change in this region occurring during the contrast of label emotion versus match forms. A correlation analysis between left amygdala activation and cortical thickness was then performed along each point of the cortical surface, resulting in a color-coded r value at each cortical point. Correlation analyses revealed that gray matter thickness in left ventromedial PFC was inversely correlated with task-related activation in the amygdala. These data add support to a general role of the ventromedial PFC in regulating activity of the amygdala.
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Alexithymia reduces one's ability to label emotional states, which has been shown to reduce the aversive nature of the state.
“This may be due to alexithymia reducing one’s ability to label emotional states, which has been shown to reduce the aversive nature of the state (Foland-Ross et al., 2010; Lieberman et al., 2007; Mazefsky and White, 2014).”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Foland-Ross et al., 2010
The Discussion reports that affect labeling reduced amygdala activation and says the task had previously been associated with reduced self-reported negative affect. It does not address alexithymia or show that alexithymia impairs the ability to label emotions; the authors also say they collected no behavioral or physiological measures of emotional arousal in this study. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 39 · Cited by 49
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Amaral DG The Amygdala: Neurobiological Aspects of Emotion 1992 New York Wiley-Liss
- Von Economo C The cytoarchitectonics of the human cerebral cortex 1929 London Oxford Medical Publications
- Authors
- Foland-Ross, L. C., Altshuler, L. L., Bookheimer, S. Y., Lieberman, M. D., Townsend, J., Penfold, C., Moody, T., Ahlf, K., Shen, J. K., Madsen, S. K., Rasser, P. E., Toga, A. W., & Thompson, P. M.
- Affiliations
- VA West Los Angeles Medical Center (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Newcastle Australia (AU)
- Schizophrenia Research Institute (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Thompson, Paul M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2010-12-08
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 49
- Pages
- 16673-16678
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC3046875
- OpenAlex
- W2163118976
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 3.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ahmanson Foundation
- Brain Mapping Support Foundation
- Pierson-Lovelace Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (and K24, RR13642)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21MH075944, MH01848, F31MH078556, MH075944, K24MH001848)
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (EB 01651, R21EB001561)
- National Center for Research Resources (EB01651, P41RR013642, RR12169, RR 13642, RR00865, M01RR000865, C06RR012169)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- amygdala, prefrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, cortical thickness, gray matter, amygdala reactivity, emotional face processing, emotion labeling, brain structure-function relationship
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Amygdala, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Statistics as Topic, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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