the relationship between amygdala activation and passive exposure time to an aversive cue during a continuous performance task杏仁核的激活和被动的关系曝光时间厌恶提示期间连续性能任务.pdfVIP

The Relationship between Amygdala Activation and Passive Exposure Time to an Aversive Cue during a Continuous Performance Task Irina A. Strigo1,2*, Alan N. Simmons1,2, Scott C. Matthews 1,2, Arthur D. (Bud) Craig3 1 University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 2 Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California, United States of America, 3 Division of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America Abstract The allocation of attention modulates negative emotional processing in the amygdala. However, the role of passive exposure time to emotional signals in the modulation of amygdala activity during active task performance has not been examined. In two functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments conducted in two different groups of healthy human subjects, we examined activation in the amygdala due to cued anticipation of painful stimuli while subjects performed a simple continuous performance task (CPT) with either a fixed or a parametrically varied trial duration. In the first experiment (N = 16), engagement in the CPT during a task with fixed trial duration produced the expected attenuation of amygdala activation, but close analysis suggested that the attenuation occurred during the period of active engagement in CPT, and that amygdala activity increased proportionately during the remainder of each trial, when subjects were passively exposed to the pain cue. In the second experiment (N = 12), the duration of each trial was parametrically varied, and we found that amygdala activation was linearly related to the time of passive exposure to the anticipatory cue. We suggest that amygdala activation during negative anticipatory processing depends directly on the passive exposure time to the negative cue. Citation: Strigo IA, Simm