Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on May 12, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(3):742-748; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhk024
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/3/742    most recent
bhk024v2
bhk024v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (28)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lewis, P.
Right arrow Articles by Dolan, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lewis, P.
Right arrow Articles by Dolan, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Neural Correlates of Processing Valence and Arousal in Affective Words

PA Lewis1,2, HD Critchley2, P Rotshtein3 and RJ Dolan3

1 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK, 2 School of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, 3 Functional Imaging Laboratory, University College London, London, UK

Address correspondence to P.A. Lewis, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N3AR, UK. Email: p.lewis{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk.

Psychological frameworks conceptualize emotion along 2 dimensions, "valence" and "arousal." Arousal invokes a single axis of intensity increasing from neutral to maximally arousing. Valence can be described variously as a bipolar continuum, as independent positive and negative dimensions, or as hedonic value (distance from neutral). In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize neural activity correlating with arousal and with distinct models of valence during presentation of affective word stimuli. Our results extend observations in the chemosensory domain suggesting a double dissociation in which subregions of orbitofrontal cortex process valence, whereas amygdala preferentially processes arousal. In addition, our data support the physiological validity of descriptions of valence along independent axes or as absolute distance from neutral but fail to support the validity of descriptions of valence along a bipolar continuum.

Key Words: amygdala • arousal • emotion • fMRI • orbitofrontal cortex • valence


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
F. C. Davis, T. Johnstone, E. C. Mazzulla, J. A. Oler, and P. J. Whalen
Regional Response Differences Across the Human Amygdaloid Complex during Social Conditioning
Cereb Cortex, June 25, 2009; (2009) bhp126v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Soc Cogn Affect NeurosciHome page
C. Herbert, T. Ethofer, S. Anders, M. Junghofer, D. Wildgruber, W. Grodd, and J. Kissler
Amygdala activation during reading of emotional adjectives--an advantage for pleasant content
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, March 1, 2009; 4(1): 35 - 49.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Soc Cogn Affect NeurosciHome page
S. Anders, F. Eippert, N. Weiskopf, and R. Veit
The human amygdala is sensitive to the valence of pictures and sounds irrespective of arousal: an fMRI study
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, September 1, 2008; 3(3): 233 - 243.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
E. S. Herbener
Emotional Memory in Schizophrenia
Schizophr Bull, September 1, 2008; 34(5): 875 - 887.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
P. Belin, S. Fecteau, I. Charest, N. Nicastro, M. D Hauser, and J. L Armony
Human cerebral response to animal affective vocalizations
Proc R Soc B, March 7, 2008; 275(1634): 473 - 481.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Am. J. PsychiatryHome page
D. D. Langleben, K. Ruparel, I. Elman, S. Busch-Winokur, R. Pratiwadi, J. Loughead, C. P. O'Brien, and A. R. Childress
Acute Effect of Methadone Maintenance Dose on Brain fMRI Response to Heroin-Related Cues
Am J Psychiatry, March 1, 2008; 165(3): 390 - 394.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.