Brain activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex correlates with individual differences in negative affect. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002 Feb 19;99(4):2450-4
Date
02/14/2002Pubmed ID
11842195Pubmed Central ID
PMC122385DOI
10.1073/pnas.042457199Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0037133329 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 159 CitationsAbstract
Individuals differ in the extent to which they experience negative mood states over time. To explore the relationship between individual differences in negative affect (NA) and brain activity, we asked healthy subjects participating in positron-emission tomography scans to rate the extent to which they had experienced NA terms during the month before scanning. In two independent samples of subjects, resting regional cerebral blood flow within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) correlated with ratings of NA. The finding converges with recent evidence implicating the VMPFC in emotional and autonomic processing. Moreover, it demonstrates that variability in basal VMPFC activity across subjects is related to individual differences in subjective emotional experience.
Author List
Zald DH, Mattson DL, Pardo JVMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Affect
Brain
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Prefrontal Cortex
Tomography, Emission-Computed
