Effects of emotional valence and three-dimensionality of visual stimuli on brain activation: An fMRI study

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2013

Authors

A. R. Dores (Author) Other; I. Almeida (Author) Other; Fernando Barbosa (Author) FPCEUP; M. Castelo Branco (Author) Other; L. Monteiro (Author) Other; M. Reis (Author) Other; L. de Sousa (Author) ICBAS; A. Castro-Caldas (Author) Other

Journal

Title: NeuroRehabilitation

Vol. 33 No. 4

Pages: 505-512

ISSN: 1053-8135

Publisher: IOS PRESS

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 4 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 5 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Clinical medicine

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-006-K60

DOI: 10.3233/nre-130987

Abstract (EN): BACKGROUND: Examining changes in brain activation linked with emotion-inducing stimuli is essential to the study of emotions. Due to the ecological potential of techniques such as virtual reality (VR), inspection of whether brain activation in response to emotional stimuli can be modulated by the three-dimensional (3D) properties of the images is important. OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to test whether the activation of brain areas involved in the emotional processing of scenarios of different valences can be modulated by 3D. Therefore, the focus was made on the interaction effect between emotion-inducing stimuli of different emotional valences (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral valences) and visualization types (2D, 3D). However, main effects were also analyzed. METHODS: The effect of emotional valence and visualization types and their interaction were analyzed through a 3x2 repeated measures ANOVA. Post-hoc t-tests were performed under a ROI-analysis approach. RESULTS: The results show increased brain activation for the 3D affective-inducing stimuli in comparison with the same stimuli in 2D scenarios, mostly in cortical and subcortical regions that are related to emotional processing, in addition to visual processing regions. CONCLUSIONS: This study has the potential of clarify brain mechanisms involved in the processing of emotional stimuli (scenarios' valence) and their interaction with three-dimensionality.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: <a href="http://gateway.isiknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=Alerting&SrcApp=Alerting&DestApp=WOS&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=000328690700001">Acesso à Web of Science</a>

No. of pages: 8