Assessment of distinct subcortical and cortical contributions to affect and approach/withdrawal behavior by means of...

The relevance of subcortical structures and interhemispheric subcortical-cortical interactions among positive/negative affect and approach/withdrawal tendencies during resting-state are not fully understood. Gaining this knowledge may foster the know-how on their role in subsequent task-engagement and also on the interlinkage among affective measures and approach/withdrawal dichotomy. Here we performed a study based on Region of Interest (ROI)-based analysis and graph-theory estimates for global and subnetworks on a limited sample of healthy 50 male volunteers who recorded resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and self-reported measures of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and BAS-BIS (Behavioral Activation System-Behavioral Inhibition System) scores. Our study's initial results of region of interest-to-region of interest (ROI-to-ROI) connectivity revealed the connectivity of subcortical neural substrates of PANAS and BAS-BIS scores with bilateralized cortical regions. However, on probing the lateralization of strength of degree measures of the cortical-regions vital for subcortical-cortical interaction, we found, for positive affect, a left-hemispheric proclivity. Further, higher connectivity within the left hemisphere was also observed for the left-lateralized critical cortical regions of negative affect. Our study also revealed the association of emotion and memory-related subcortical-cortical interactions in positive and negative affect. Right amygdala-right thalamus-frontotemporal cortical areas emanated in positive affect, and right putamen-left hippocampus-frontotemporal cortical regions network stemmed for negative affect. Then, we show the involvement of basal-ganglia structures in approach-withdrawal dichotomy with tight coupling of right-caudate, left-accumbens with anterior cingulate, and insular regions for withdrawal/inhibition system. Further, distinct involvement of the insula (posterior) in affective states while insula (anterior) in approach/withdrawal systems builds up for the existence of a feedback loop between affective and approach/withdrawal systems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).