Common and distinct brain networks underlying explicit emotional evaluation: a meta-analytic study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Neuroscience

Background:

• Explicit emotional evaluation involves diverse tasks, but shared and distinct neural mechanisms remain unclear.
• Understanding these brain mechanisms is crucial for comprehending emotion regulation and social cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on explicit emotional evaluation.
• To identify common and distinct brain regions associated with stimulus-focused, self-focused, and other-focused emotional evaluation tasks.

Main Methods:

• Meta-analysis of published neuroimaging studies.
• Examination of brain regions involved in three distinct explicit emotional evaluation tasks.

Main Results:

• Common regions across all tasks: amygdala, lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC).
• Distinct regions for stimulus evaluation: sensory cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC).
• Distinct regions for self-evaluation: insula and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC).
• Distinct regions for evaluating others' emotions: superior temporal sulcus (STS) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ).

Conclusions:

• Explicit emotional evaluation utilizes both common and distinct neural networks.
• Findings suggest specific roles for identified regions in emotion-cognition interaction, interoception, and social cognition (Theory of Mind, empathy).
• Provides novel insights into the multifaceted neural underpinnings of explicit emotional evaluation.