Time-locked brain activity associated with emotion: A pilot MEG study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the time course of brain activation in response to emotionally evocative pictures.

Methods and procedures: Regions of the brain involved in the processing of affective stimuli in response to picture sets rated unpleasant, pleasant and affectively neutral, as well as the order of activation of each region, were investigated using magnetoencephalography in 10 normal adult volunteers.

Results: Spatiotemporal maps were found consisting of two basic components. The first involving activation in the occipital and basal aspects of the temporal cortex- lasted, on average, 270 ms post-stimulus. The second component involving activation in the mesial temporal lobes (MTL) extended from 270 to 850 ms post-stimulus. After (serial) activating the mesial temporal lobe structures or simultaneous (parallel) to it, activation is also observed in the frontal structures.

Conclusions: The temporal organization in the brain of an emotional stimulus requires the serial and alternating engagement of frontal and posterior cortices. It is suggested that lesions to the brain may disrupt this temporal course, altering the emotional response commonly observed in patients with brain injury.

• Emotion
• MEG
• mesial temporal lobe
• limbic system
• frontal cortex