Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Fichtenholtz, HM; Dean, HL; Dillon, DG; Yamasaki, H; McCarthy, G; LaBar, KS
Published in: Brain research. Cognitive brain research
June 2004

Emotional and attentional functions are known to be distributed along ventral and dorsal networks in the brain, respectively. However, the interactions between these systems remain to be specified. The present study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how attentional focus can modulate the neural activity elicited by scenes that vary in emotional content. In a visual oddball task, aversive and neutral scenes were presented intermittently among circles and squares. The squares were frequent standard events, whereas the other novel stimulus categories occurred rarely. One experimental group [N=10] was instructed to count the circles, whereas another group [N=12] counted the emotional scenes. A main effect of emotion was found in the amygdala (AMG) and ventral frontotemporal cortices. In these regions, activation was significantly greater for emotional than neutral stimuli but was invariant to attentional focus. A main effect of attentional focus was found in dorsal frontoparietal cortices, whose activity signaled task-relevant target events irrespective of emotional content. The only brain region that was sensitive to both emotion and attentional focus was the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG). When circles were task-relevant, the ACG responded equally to circle targets and distracting emotional scenes. The ACG response to emotional scenes increased when they were task-relevant, and the response to circles concomitantly decreased. These findings support and extend prominent network theories of emotion-attention interactions that highlight the integrative role played by the anterior cingulate.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Brain research. Cognitive brain research

DOI

ISSN

0926-6410

Publication Date

June 2004

Volume

20

Issue

1

Start / End Page

67 / 80

Related Subject Headings

  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Parietal Lobe
  • Nerve Net
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Gyrus Cinguli
  • Functional Laterality
  • Frontal Lobe
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Fichtenholtz, H. M., Dean, H. L., Dillon, D. G., Yamasaki, H., McCarthy, G., & LaBar, K. S. (2004). Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task. Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research, 20(1), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.01.006
Fichtenholtz, Harlan M., Heather L. Dean, Daniel G. Dillon, Hiroshi Yamasaki, Gregory McCarthy, and Kevin S. LaBar. “Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task.Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research 20, no. 1 (June 2004): 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.01.006.
Fichtenholtz HM, Dean HL, Dillon DG, Yamasaki H, McCarthy G, LaBar KS. Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task. Brain research Cognitive brain research. 2004 Jun;20(1):67–80.
Fichtenholtz, Harlan M., et al. “Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task.Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research, vol. 20, no. 1, June 2004, pp. 67–80. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.01.006.
Fichtenholtz HM, Dean HL, Dillon DG, Yamasaki H, McCarthy G, LaBar KS. Emotion-attention network interactions during a visual oddball task. Brain research Cognitive brain research. 2004 Jun;20(1):67–80.
Journal cover image

Published In

Brain research. Cognitive brain research

DOI

ISSN

0926-6410

Publication Date

June 2004

Volume

20

Issue

1

Start / End Page

67 / 80

Related Subject Headings

  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Parietal Lobe
  • Nerve Net
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Gyrus Cinguli
  • Functional Laterality
  • Frontal Lobe
  • Experimental Psychology