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. 2014 Feb;9(2):176-81.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nss131. Epub 2012 Nov 18.

Temporal dynamics of emotional responding: amygdala recovery predicts emotional traits

Brianna S Schuyler  1 , Tammi R A Kral, Jolene Jacquart, Cory A Burghy, Helen Y Weng, David M Perlman, David R W Bachhuber, Melissa A Rosenkranz, Donal G Maccoon, Carien M van Reekum, Antoine Lutz, Richard J Davidson
Affiliations

Temporal dynamics of emotional responding: amygdala recovery predicts emotional traits

Brianna S Schuyler et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Feb.

Abstract

An individual's affective style is influenced by many things, including the manner in which an individual responds to an emotional challenge. Emotional response is composed of a number of factors, two of which are the initial reactivity to an emotional stimulus and the subsequent recovery once the stimulus terminates or ceases to be relevant. However, most neuroimaging studies examining emotional processing in humans focus on the magnitude of initial reactivity to a stimulus rather than the prolonged response. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the time course of amygdala activity in healthy adults in response to presentation of negative images. We split the amygdala time course into an initial reactivity period and a recovery period beginning after the offset of the stimulus. We find that initial reactivity in the amygdala does not predict trait measures of affective style. Conversely, amygdala recovery shows predictive power such that slower amygdala recovery from negative images predicts greater trait neuroticism, in addition to lower levels of likability of a set of social stimuli (neutral faces). These data underscore the importance of taking into account temporal dynamics when studying affective processing using neuroimaging.

Keywords: amygdala; chronometry; emotion; fMRI; time course.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Experimental paradigm. Image is presented for 4 s, and participants press a button indicating the valence of the image (Negative, Neutral or Positive). After image offset, a neutral face is presented at 1 s or 3 s after image offset or not at all.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Amygdala response to negative images. (a) Amygdala regions that are significantly greater in Negative > Neutral. (b) Time course of amygdala following Negative image presentation, averaged over all participants. The black rectangle above the abscissa denotes the presentation of the negative image. Reactivity is defined as the AUC in the period denoted in dark gray. Recovery is defined as AUC over the period denoted in light gray, controlling for reactivity AUC. (c) Average time course of amygdala in participants with high neuroticism (top quartile, in red) and low neuroticism (bottom quartile, in blue). (d) Average time course of amygdala in participants who rated novel faces as least likable (bottom quartile, in yellow) and most likable (top quartile, in green). Error bars represent standard deviations.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Amygdala recovery from negative images predicts emotional traits. (a) Slower amygdala return to baseline predicts greater trait neuroticism. (b) Slower amygdala return to baseline predicts lower likability ratings of novel faces.
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