Valence-Dependent Coupling of Prefrontal-Amygdala Effective Connectivity during Facial Affect Processing

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Neuroscience

Background:

• The prefrontal-amygdala (AMY) network is crucial for emotion processing.
• Understanding how emotional valence modulates connectivity within this network is essential but remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of emotional valence on brain activity and effective connectivity within the prefrontal-AMY network.
• To identify specific functional pathways engaged during the processing of emotional valence.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in 33 healthy adults.
• Participants performed a dynamic faces and shapes matching task with varying emotional valences (positive, negative, neutral).
• Dynamic causal modeling and Bayesian model averaging were employed to analyze effective connectivity.

Main Results:

• Core emotion processing areas identified: medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), right lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), AMY, and right fusiform face area (FFA).
• Bidirectional coupling within the prefrontal-AMY circuitry was modulated by emotional valence.
• Significant bottom-up connectivity from the AMY to the MPFC was observed for negative and neutral valence, but not positive valence.

Conclusions:

• Emotional valence significantly alters bottom-up coupling within the prefrontal-AMY network.
• Findings advance the understanding of prefrontal-AMY circuitry in different valence contexts.
• Provides a model for examining valence-sensitive emotional dysregulation in neuropsychiatric disorders.