Reappraisal-related downregulation of amygdala BOLD activation occurs only during the late trial window

During cognitive reappraisal, an individual reinterprets the meaning of an emotional stimulus to regulate the intensity of their emotional response. Prefrontal cortex activity has been found to support reappraisal and is putatively thought to downregulate the amygdala response to these stimuli. The timing of these regulation-related responses during the course of a trial, however, remains poorly understood. In the current fMRI study, participants were instructed to view or reappraise negative images and then rate how negative they felt following each image. The hemodynamic response function was estimated in 11 regions of interest for the entire time course of the trial including image viewing and rating. Notably, within the amygdala there was no evidence of downregulation in the early (picture viewing) window of the trial, only in the late (rating) window, which also correlated with a behavioral measure of reappraisal success. With respect to the prefrontal regions, some (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus) showed reappraisal-related activation in the early window, whereas others (e.g., middle frontal gyrus) showed increased activation primarily in the late window. These results highlight the temporal dynamics of different brain regions during emotion regulation and suggest that the amygdala response to negative images need not be immediately dampened to achieve successful cognitive reappraisal.

A novel analytical decoder of BOLD signals for dissociating latent neurobehavioral processes

Brain, as a complex cognitive system, often processes multiple dimension information synchronously and integrate them to adapt dynamic environments and make effective decisions.1-3 How to retrieve latent neurobehavioral processes from complex human neurobiological signals is an important yet previously unresolved challenge.4,5 For instance, the previous literature has proposed two fundamental yet mutually confounded processes during the decision making and affective processing, i.e. valance and arousal.6,7 Here, we develop a novel analytical approach, orthogonal-Decoding multi-Cognitive Processes (DeCoP), with which we dissociate neural responses in processing valence and arousal information during tests of motivational and emotional function. During reward/punishment anticipation, we decode brain-wide responses into spatially overlapping, yet functionally independent, evaluation and readiness networks, i.e., motivational valence and arousal processing, which are modulated differentially by the meso-limbic vs nigro-striatal dopamine systems. Similarly, during emotional reactivity, we decompose amygdala response into independent emotional valence and facial arousal processing features. We demonstrate that DeCoP can resolve paradoxically unexpected brain 'inactivation', and be applied more generally to decode multiple latent neurobehavioral processes. Furthermore, we anticipate our approach to advance both the design and hypothesis testing of cognitive experimental task paradigms.

Humanoid robots are perceived as an evolutionary threat

In the grand challenges of successful social encounters with socially sophisticated robots and shaping the future development of robots in socially acceptable ways, we need to quantify people perception to the robots. The critical assumption at the perception to humanoid robots, namely that people perceive humanoid robots as an evolutionary threat, has not been directly confirmed. We assume the existence of behavioral and neural automaticity for humanoid robots that were previously only evident for evolutionary threats. Here, we observed a monocular advantage for the perception of humanoid robots the same as an evolutionary threat (i.e., snakes). Our neuroimaging analysis indicated that unconscious presentation of humanoid robot vs. human images led to significant left amygdala activation that was associated with negative implicit attitude to humanoid robots. After successfully weakening negative attitude, the left amygdala response to unconscious presentation of humanoid robot images decreased, and the decrease of left amygdala response was positively associated with the decrease of negative attitude. Our results reveal that processing of information about humanoid robots displays automaticity with regard to recruitment of visual pathway and amygdala activation. Our findings that humans may perceive humanoid robots as an evolutionary threat will guide the future direction of robots development and bring us closer to interacting with socially sophisticated robots.

Modulation of Amygdala Response by Cognitive Conflict in Adolescents with Conduct Problems and Varying Levels of CU Traits

Adolescents with conduct problems and low callous-unemotional traits are characterised by high levels of reactive aggression. Prior studies suggest that they can have exaggerated neural and behavioural responses to negative emotional stimuli, accompanied by compromised affect regulation and atypical engagement of prefrontal areas during cognitive control. This pattern may in part explain their symptoms. Clarifying how neurocognitive responses to negative emotional stimuli can be modulated in this group has potential translational relevance. We present fMRI data from a cognitive conflict task in which the requirement to visually scan emotional (vs. calm) faces was held constant across low and high levels of cognitive conflict. Participants were 17 adolescent males with conduct problems and low levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/LCU); 17 adolescents with conduct problems and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU, who typically show blunted reactivity to fear), and 18 typically developing controls (age range 10–16). Control participants showed typical attenuation of amygdala response to fear relative to calm faces under high (relative to low) conflict, replicating previous findings in a healthy adult sample. In contrast, children with CP/LCU showed a reduced (left amygdala) or reversed (right amygdala) attenuation effect under high cognitive conflict conditions. Children with CP/HCU did not differ from controls. Findings suggest atypical modulation of amygdala response as a function of task demands, and raise the possibility that those with CP/LCU are unable to implement typical regulation of amygdala response when cognitive task demands are high.

Neighborhood Poverty and Amygdala Response to Negative Face

Introduction: Considerable research has established a link between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain function. While studies have shown a link between poverty status and amygdala response to negative stimuli, a paucity of knowledge exists on whether neighborhood poverty is also independently associated with amygdala hyperactive response to negative stimuli. Purpose: Using functional brain imaging data, this study tested the association between neighborhood SES and the amygdala’s response to negative stimuli. Considering race as a sociological rather than a biological construct, we also explored racial heterogeneity in this association between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White youth. Methods: We borrowed the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The sample was 2,490 nine to ten years old non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White adolescents. The independent variable was neighborhood income which was treated as a continuous measure. The primary outcomes were the right and left amygdala response to negative face during an N-Back task. Age, sex, race, marital status, and family SES were the covariates. To analyze the data, we used linear regression models. Results: Low neighborhood income was independently associated with a higher level of amygdala response to negative face. Similar results were seen for the right and left amygdala. These effects were significant net of race, age, sex, marital status, and family SES. An association between low neighborhood SES and higher left but not right amygdala response to negative face could be observed for non-Hispanic Black youth. No association between neighborhood SES and left or right amygdala response to negative face could be observed for non-Hispanic White youth. Conclusions: For American youth, particularly non-Hispanic Black youth, living in a poor neighborhood predicts the left amygdala reaction to negative face. This result suggested that Black youth who live in poor neighborhoods are at a high risk of poor emotion regulation. This finding has implications for policy making to reduce inequalities in undesired behavioral and emotional outcomes. Policy solutions to health inequalities should address inequalities in neighborhood SES.