Ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes emotional value.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Neuroscience

Background:

• The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is crucial for processing appetitive stimuli and reward value.
• Emotion regulation strategies can alter reward value signals in the vmPFC.
• The overlap between neural regions for reward processing and positive emotion processing remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how emotion regulation affects the valuation of emotionally evocative images.
• To examine the role of the vmPFC in processing positive emotions and their regulation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in two independent human participant samples.
• Employed a cognitive reappraisal task to induce and regulate positive emotions.
• Analyzed vmPFC activation in relation to subjective and normative valence ratings of stimuli.

Main Results:

• Experiencing positive emotions activated the vmPFC, while regulating these emotions decreased vmPFC activation.
• vmPFC activation correlated with subjective valence ratings during emotion experience.
• vmPFC activation also tracked normative valence ratings when participants experienced emotions, but not during regulation.
• Increased vmPFC signal predicted more positive valence ratings, independent of stimulus properties and experimental condition.

Conclusions:

• The vmPFC encodes a domain-general value signal.
• This signal tracks the value of both external rewards and emotionally evocative stimuli.
• Emotion regulation modulates this general value signal in the vmPFC.