The neural mechanism of imagining facial affective expression.

Full Abstract

To react appropriately in social relationships, we have a tendency to simulate how others think of us through mental imagery. In particular, simulating other people's facial affective expressions through imagery in social situations enables us to enact vivid affective responses, which may be inducible from other people's affective responses that are predicted as results of our mental imagery of future behaviors. Therefore, this ability is an important cognitive feature of diverse advanced social cognition in humans. We used functional magnetic imaging to examine brain activation during the imagery of emotional facial expressions as compared to neutral facial expressions. Twenty-one right-handed subjects participated in this study. We observed the activation of the amygdala during the imagining of emotional facial affect versus the imagining of neutral facial affects. In addition, we also observed the activation of several areas of the brain, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral premotor cortex, superior temporal sulcus, parahippocampal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and the midbrain. Our results suggest that the areas of the brain known to be involved in the actual perception of affective facial expressions are also implicated in the imagery of affective facial expressions. In particular, given that the processing of information concerning the facial patterning of different emotions and the enactment of behavioral responses, such as autonomic arousal, are central components of the imagery of emotional facial expressions, we postulate the central role of the amygdala in the imagery of emotional facial expressions.

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Author information

Author/s: Kim, Sung-Eun (SE); Kim, Ji-Woong (JW); Kim, Jae-Jin (JJ); Jeong, Bum Seok (BS); Choi, Eun Ae (EA); Jeong, Young-Gil (YG); Kim, Ji Hyung (JH); Ku, Jeonghun (J); Ki, Seon Wan (SW);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, 685 Gasoowon-Dong, Seo-Gu, Daejeon, and Republic of Korea.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Brain research (Brain Res), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 1145 (issue ) : pp 128-37

Dates: Created 2007/04/03; Completed 2007/06/26;

PMID: 17359942, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Affect - physiology
Amygdala - anatomy & histology; physiology
Autonomic Nervous System - physiology
Brain - anatomy & histology; physiology
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology; physiology
Emotions - physiology
Facial Expression
Female

Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Imagination - physiology
Limbic System - physiology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mesencephalon - physiology
Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; physiology
Social Behavior

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