Department of Psychiatry, University of Göttingen, Germany
Dr Godehard Weniger, Department of Psychiatry, University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Strasse 5, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany. Email: gwenige{at}gwdg.de.
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Abstract |
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Introduction |
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The specification of cerebral cortical areas involved in human emotion recognition may be done on the basis of structural (i.e. architectonical) or functional features. However, the structural approach has the disadvantage that parcellation of the mammalian cerebral cortex into a great number of anatomically distinct areas hinders the understanding of complex and integrative functions that underlie human cognition and emotion. It is a fundamental tenet of modern neuroscience that integrated actions of interconnected cortical regions are crucial for complex human behavior (Geschwind, 1965). Subdividing the cerebral cortex based on functional affiliations thus may be a timely approach for the investigation of complex human cognitive and emotional behaviors.
One functional approach is that adopted by Mesulam (Mesulam, 1985, 1998
). Based on studies of the phylogenetic development of the cortex (Sanides, 1970
), on pathoarchitectonic ontogenetic studies (Yakovlev, 1959
), and on anatomical, physiological and behavioral experiments in macaque monkeys, he divided the cerebral cortex into five major functional zones: primary sensory and motor, unimodal, heteromodal, paralimbic, and limbic cortices. Heteromodal cortices are characterized by three criteria: they receive convergent inputs from unimodal areas in more than one sensory modality, respond to stimulation in more than one modality, and lesions yield multimodal behavioral deficits.
Heteromodal and paralimbic and limbic, i.e. transmodal, cortices represent the highest synaptic levels of sensory-fugal processing, and also exert sensory-petal influences upon unimodal cortices. It is likely that human emotion processing substantially depends on transmodal cortices: they connect the primary and unimodal sensory cortices to the limbic system, and thus enable a link between the inside and the outside world so that needs can be discharged according to the opportunities and restrictions of the extrapersonal environment.
The aim of the present study was to clarify the role of functionally defined cortical areas for the decoding of emotional facial expressions and the modulation of mood state. Although it is known that heteromodal and paralimbic cortices are intensively interconnected, detailed knowledge about the role of these cortices in human emotion processing is missing. In the present study we investigated a consecutive sample of 68 subjects with focal cerebral cortical lesions using two different tasks to assess the decoding of emotional facial expressions and a questionnaire to assess the mood state. Lesions of each subject were thoroughly assessed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans and classified according to the functional properties of the areas with lesions. The goals of the study were to analyze: (i) whether lesions of transmodal cortices impair emotional task performance stronger than lesions of other cortices, and (ii) whether deficits in emotional task performance are associated to specific transmodal lesion sites.
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Materials and Methods |
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A consecutive sample of subjects with focal cerebral cortical lesions caused by microsurgical tumor resection (TUM; n = 45) or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH; n = 23) participated in the study. They were compared with 16 clinical control subjects (CCG) who had undergone surgery for slipped disks, as well as 15 healthy control subjects (HCG), who were recruited for the study via an advert in a local newspaper. Subjects of groups TUM, ICH and CCG were in or outpatients of the neurosurgical or neurological departments of the University of Göttingen. Exclusion criteria consisted of ages older than 75 years, or a history of psychiatric illness, or lesions covering the visual cortices. After complete description of the study to the subjects, informed consent was obtained. The demographic and clinical characteristics of subjects are summarized in Table 1.
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Before the analysis of the behavioral data, the lesions of the TUM and ICH subjects were transcribed from T1- and T2-weighted MR images to appropriate pages of the TalairachTournoux brain atlas (Talairach and Tournoux, 1988). For subjects who had undergone neurosurgery (all TUM subjects and 17 ICH subjects) the postsurgical lesions were assessed. The extent of the lesions was estimated (as a percentage) for cortical regions according to Brodmann areas (BA). A given Brodmann area was considered as affected when the lesion covered >5% of its extent. The total lesion volume was assessed using digitized CT scans according to a procedure described previously (Wowra et al., 1989
).
Cortical lesion groups were formed according to the functional properties of the areas with lesions. According to Mesulam (Mesulam, 1998), the following five functional zones can be distinguished: (i) primary motor or sensory cortices include motor (BA 4), visual (BA 17), auditory (BA 41, 42), somatosensory (BA 3), and gustatory (BA 43) areas; (ii) unimodal cortices include visual (BA 1821), auditory (BA 22) and somatosensory (BA 1, 2, 5) association areas, as well as the premotor cortex (BA 6); (iii) heteromodal cortices are located in the frontal (BA 810, 45, 46, anterior BA 11, 12) and parietal (BA 7, 39, 40) lobe, as well as in portions of the lateral temporal (BA 21, 37) and parahippocampal (BA 35, 36) cortex; (iv) there are five paralimbic regions, i.e. caudal orbitofrontal cortex (BA 1113), insula (BA 1416), temporal pole (BA 38), parahippocampal gyrus (BA 27, 28), and the retrosplenial-cingulate-parolfactory complex (BA 2326, 2933); (v) Limbic core formations include the amygdala, hippocampus, prepiriform olfactory cortex, septal area and substantia innominata.
The following lesion groups were formed: group H (subjects with lesions of heteromodal cortices; n = 11), group L (subjects with lesions of limbic/paralimbic cortices; n = 8), group H/L (subjects with lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices; n = 14), group MS (subjects with lesions of unimodal or primary motor or sensory cortices; n = 3), group H/MS (subjects with lesions of heteromodal, and unimodal or primary motor or sensory cortices; n = 17), and group H/L/MS (subjects with lesions of heteromodal, limbic/paralimbic, and unimodal or primary motor or sensory cortices; n = 15). The lesion characteristics of subjects are described in Table 2. Representative lesions of the six lesion groups are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2
.
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Neuropsychological examination included a short form of the German version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R) which comprised the subtests Information, Similarities, Block Design and Picture Completion. Mnemonic functions were assessed using the Logical Memory I and II subtests and the Verbal and Visual Span subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale Revised (WMS-R). The Trail Making Test (TMT; parts A and B) was used as a measure of attentional performance and psychomotor speed. We also applied the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) to control for the ability to recognize unemotional faces.
Experimental Tasks
The stimulus set contained 16 black-and-white pictures of faces with prototypical emotional expressions. We included two neutral facial expressions, and each two pictures of Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Surprise. Furthermore, we included each two pictures showing happiness with high (Joy) and low intensity (Pleasure). Each pair of identical facial expressions contained one picture of a female face and one of a male face expressing the emotion in question. All expressions have been shown to be identified by normal subjects at >80% success rate (Ekman and Friesen, 1976).
Sorting Task
Subjects were explicitly instructed to sort the pictures with identical emotional expressions into groups, and not to sort according to gender or physiognomic aspects. There was no restriction as to the number of groups to be formed or the number of pictures to be sorted into a group. The correct solution of the task was to sort the eight pairs of identical emotional expressions into eight groups. Because Joy and Pleasure represent different intensities of the same emotion, sorting these two pairs in only one group was also regarded as a correct solution. For each subject, the Sum of Errors, representing the total number of errors within the individual sorting matrix, was calculated. Furthermore, we calculated for each group of subjects Proximities, expressing the percentage of subjects sorting identical emotional expressions into the same group.
Rating Task
After finishing the sorting task, subjects were asked to rate each facial expression on a seven-point Likert scale according to the dimensions of valence (1: pleasantunpleasant: 7) and arousal (1: unarousedaroused: 7), which have been suggested to be the most relevant attributes for the judgement of emotional facial expressions. The average rating of valence and arousal was compared for each pair of identical emotional expression, as well as for all expressions with positive valence (Joy, Pleasure), neutral or ambiguous valence (Neutral, Surprise), or negative valence (Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Fear).
Furthermore, Rating Errors on the valence and arousal dimension were calculated separately for each pair of identical emotional expressions: rating positive expressions not as pleasant (>3 on a seven-point Likert scale), or rating ambiguous expressions as pleasant (<3) or unpleasant (>5), or rating negative expressions not as unpleasant (<5) was considered as wrong. Rating highly aroused expressions (Joy, Surprise, Anger, Fear) not as aroused (<5), or rating mildly aroused expressions (Pleasure, Disgust) as highly aroused (>5) or unaroused (<3), or rating unaroused expressions (Neutral, Sadness) not as unaroused (>3) was also considered as wrong.
Mood State
An adjective checklist was used [Eigenschaftswörterliste (Janke and Debus, 1978)]. The questionnaire consists of 123 adjectives constituting five factors: Vigor, Fatigue, Extraversion, Irritability/Anger and Anxiety/Depression. These five factors can be summed up to a negative and positive factor, including all items containing negative or positive emotional valence respectively. Only tumor subjects completed the mood questionnaire.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical computations were performed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS for Windows, Version 6.12) and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS for Windows, Version 6.0.1). For the computation of the statistical significance of Proximities we applied a software package developed by Eckes (Eckes, 1986). For the analysis of small samples, non-parametric statistical methods (KruskalWallis one-way ANOVA, MannWhitney U-test, Fisher's exact test, Spearman rank correlation) were used. All analyses were two-tailed and the alpha was defined at 0.05.
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Results |
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Sorting Task
Errors.
The six lesion groups (groups H, L, MS, H/L, H/MS and H/L/MS) and the two control groups (HCG, CCG) differed significantly in the amount of sorting errors (KruskalWallis; P < 0.05). Table 3 shows that subjects with lesions of limbic/ paralimbic (L) or unimodal or primary motor/sensory (MS) cortices alone showed only mild deficits if any. Subjects with heteromodal (H) lesions or combined lesions of heteromodal and unimodal or primary motor/sensory cortices (H/MS) showed moderate deficits. However, subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices (H/L), and subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal, limbic/paralimbic, and unimodal or primary motor/sensory cortices (H/L/MS) showed strong deficits. Thus, combined lesions involving both heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices seem to be most strongly related to deficient performance in the sorting of emotional facial expressions.
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We calculated the distribution of the Sum of Errors for the merged control groups (HCG and CCG), resulting in a critical value of 24 errors at the first percentile. Classifying the lesioned subjects according to the first percentile, a significant effect emerged (Fisher's exact test; P = 0.001): 12 subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS ( = 41.4%) scored at the first percentile (i.e. made 24 or more errors), but only one H/MS subject (= 5.9%) and one subject of groups H + L + MS ( = 4.5%) (Table 4). Considering only subjects with right-sided lesions, 50% of H/L + H/L/MS subjects scored at the first percentile, but only 11.1% of H + L + MS subjects and no H/MS subject (Fisher's exact test; P = 0.02). In contrast, left side lesioned subjects were less impaired and performed more equally, with 22.2% of H/L + H/L/MS subjects, 14.3% of H/MS subjects and no H + L + MS subject scoring at the first percentile (Fisher's exact test; P = 0.15).
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The six lesion groups (groups H, L, MS, H/L, H/MS and H/L/MS) did not differ significantly from groups HCG and CCG in the valence and arousal rating of positive, neutral or negative emotional expressions (KruskalWallis; U-tests; Ps > 0.05). The same is true when groups H/L + H/L/MS, H/MS, and H + L + MS were compared to groups HCG and CCG (Ps > 0.05).
Considering only left side lesioned subjects or only right side lesioned subjects, no significant differences were obtained between groups H/L + H/L/MS, H/MS and H + L + MS for the valence and arousal rating (KruskalWallis; Ps > 0.05). However, comparisons of each two lesion groups (U-tests) indicated that right side lesioned subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS rated negative expressions less aroused than left side lesioned subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS (P < 0.01).
Specific Emotions. The analysis of the valence and arousal rating of pairs of identical emotional expressions revealed no significant differences (KruskalWallis, U-tests) between the various lesion groups and the control groups. The analysis of Rating Errors indicated that only the Rating Error of Fear on the arousal dimension differed significantly between groups H/L + H/L/MS, H/MS and H + L + MS (KruskalWallis, P <0.05). Post hoc analyses (U-tests, Fisher's exact test) indicated that subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS and H + L + MS committed significantly more Rating Errors (i.e. rated Fear as unaroused) than control subjects (Ps < 0.05).
Mood State
Only tumor subjects completed the mood questionnaire. Comparing the six lesion groups to groups HCG and CCG, analyses of variance (KruskalWallis) revealed no significant effects for the factors Vigor, Fatigue, Extraversion, Irritability/ Anger, Anxiety/Depression, and for the factors containing items with positive or negative emotional valence. However, confirmed items of the subscale Anxiety differed significantly between groups (P < 0.01). U-tests revealed that all lesioned subjects except MS subjects confirmed significantly more items of this subscale than control subjects. H/L subjects confirmed significantly more items than MS, L or H/MS subjects, and H subjects confirmed more items than MS subjects (Table 6).
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Analysis According to Topographical Lesion Location
Sorting Task
A two-way analysis of variance for the Sum of Errors with the factors Group (H/L + H/L/MS; H/MS; H + L + MS) and Location (frontal vs, temporal/parietal lesions) revealed a significant effect for Group (F = 5.4; P < 0.01), but nor for Location (F = 0.1; P > 0.05) or the interaction of Group and Location (F = 0.2; P > 0.05). H/L + H/L/MS subjects with frontal lesions (n = 20; median: 22 errors) and temporal/parietal lesions (n = 9; median: 20 errors) performed very similarly (U-test; P > 0.50). The same is true when only H/L + H/L/MS subjects with right-sided lesions are considered (frontal lesions, n = 7, median: 22 errors; temporal/parietal lesions, n = 7, median: 29 errors; P > 0.50). Dividing all lesioned subjects into precisely localized subgroups (Table 7) clearly illustrates that topographical lesion location cannot explain the deficits of subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices.
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H/L + H/L/MS subjects with right-sided lesions were divided according to lesion location (frontal lesions: n = 20; temporal/ parietal lesions: n = 9). The two groups did not differ in the valence and arousal rating of any specific emotional expression, as well as in the rating of groups of expressions with positive, neutral or negative valence respectively (U-tests; Ps > 0.30). Especially negative expressions were rated as similarly aroused by both groups (frontal lesions, median: 4.3 points; temporal/ parietal lesions, median: 4.4 points). The Rating Error did not differ between groups as well.
Mood State
H/L + H/L/MS subjects were divided according to lesion location (frontal lesions: n = 8; temporal/parietal lesions: n = 3). The two groups did not differ significantly on the various factors of the mood questionnaire, nor on the subscale Anxiety (U-tests; Ps > 0.05).
Influence of Lesion Size
The six lesion groups did not differ with respect to lesion size (KruskalWallis; P > 0.05). Lesion size was not significantly related to the amount of errors performed in the sorting task (rs = 0.16; P = 0.18), nor to the mood state of the subjects (rs between 0.00 and 0.11; Ps > 0.50). However, subjects with larger lesions rated negative expressions more negative (rs = 0.28; P < 0.03) and more aroused (rs = 0.30; P < 0.02) than subjects with smaller lesions. We calculated an analysis of covariance for the Sum of Errors with the between-subjects factor Group (H/L + H/L/MS; H/MS; H + L + MS) and lesion size as covariate. After partialing out the covariate, the factor Group remained significant (F = 4.49; P < 0.02). Bonferroni-adjusted comparisons of each two of the three groups indicated that after having partialed out lesion size, H/L + H/L/MS subjects were still significantly impaired when compared with H/MS or H + L + MS subjects (Ps < 0.05).
Influence of Neuropsychological Variables
Considering lesioned subjects, significant correlations were obtained between the amount of errors performed in the sorting task and all neuropsychological measures; this indicates more sorting errors in subjects with worse neuropsychological performance. The Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) was significantly related to the sorting error as well (rs = 0.44; P < 0.01), indicating more sorting errors in subjects with worse BFRT performance.
Analyses of covariance were performed for the Sum of Errors with four groups (HCG + CCG; H/L + H/L/MS; H/MS; H + L + MS) and the various neuropsychological measures as covariates. After partialing out the various covariates, the factor Group stayed significant (Fs between 5.4 and 11.4; Ps < 0.01). The same is true when the BFRT or Block Design were partialed out (BFRT: F = 9.9, P < 0.001; Block Design: F = 9.6, P < 0.001). Bonferroni-adjusted comparisons of each two of the four groups indicated that after partialing out the BFRT or Block Design subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS were still significantly impaired when compared with subjects of the other three groups (Ps < 0.05).
Influence of Etiological Variables
A two-way analysis of variance for the Sum of Errors with the factors Group (H/L + H/L/MS; H/MS; H + L + MS) and Etiology (TUM; ICH) revealed a significant effect for Group (F = 4.9; P < 0.01) but not for Etiology (F = 0.72; P > 0.05) or the interaction of Group and Etiology (F = 2.5; P > 0.05). The Sum of Errors did not differ significantly between TUM and ICH subjects of groups H/L + H/L/MS, H/MS or H + L + MS (U-tests; Ps > 0.10). The same is true when TUM and ICH subjects of single lesion groups (groups H, H/MS, H/L and H/L/MS) were compared (Ps > 0.20).
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Discussion |
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The present study indicated that combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices disturb the decoding of emotional facial expressions. Lesions restricted to limbic/ paralimbic cortices, or lesions restricted to unimodal or primary motor/sensory cortices were followed by only minor deficits if any. Moderate deficits were found after lesions restricted to heteromodal cortices and after combined lesions of heteromodal and unimodal or primary motor/sensory cortices.
Our data further demonstrate an interaction between lesion laterality and functional properties of the areas with lesions. Only combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices of the right hemisphere were related to strong deficits in the decoding of emotional facial expressions (cf. Table 3). Extremely negative mood states were observed after left-sided, but not right-sided lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices (Table 6
).
We found differential performances in the decoding of specific emotions. Joy seemed to be most easiest to decode, followed by anger and disgust, and sadness. Surprise and fear were most difficult to decode (Table 5). Subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices were the most impaired, being unable to decode fear, sadness and surprise.
The deficits of subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices cannot be attributed to topographical lesion location (Table 7). Furthermore, lesion size, lesion etiology and neuropsychological performance, especially face discrimination and visuoconstructive abilities, could not explain the deficits of subjects with combined lesions of heteromodal and limbic/paralimbic cortices.
Importance of Transmodal Cortices for the Decoding of Emotional Facial Expressions
Severe deficits in the decoding of emotional facial expressions were observed only after multiple (i.e. combined heteromodal and paralimbic) but not single lesions of transmodal cortices. These results suggest that complex human emotional behaviors may only be fundamentally disturbed when substantial amounts of transmodal tissue are lost. Table 7 clearly illustrates that the more transmodal areas were affected, the stronger were the behavioral deficits. The results cannot be attributed to a mere effect of lesion size, as there was no significant relation between lesion size and the number or sorting errors (cf. Results: Influence of lesion size).
Our results further suggest that transmodal cortices may be considered to a certain degree as equipotential (Lashley, 1929). A meta-analysis of lesion studies in Old World monkeys (Irle, 1990
) also pointed to highly specific as well as equipotential functioning of transmodal cortices. However, the detection of more specific lesion effects in our study may have been hindered by the complexity of the behaviors being measured. It is likely that many transmodal areas differentially contribute to a complex emotional-cognitive behavior, and that abolishing many transmodal areas will result in a strong and global impairment of this behavior.
Functional imaging studies also underline the idea that many transmodal cortices are important for the decoding of emotional facial expressions. Processing of emotional facial expressions produced regional activity changes in the ventral prefrontal, cingular, retrosplenial, temporopolar and fusiform cortices (George et al., 1993; Dolan et al., 1996
; Blair et al., 1999
; Critchley et al., 2000
).
A recently published lesion study by Adolphs et al. (Adolphs et al., 2000) emphasized the importance of somatosensory-related cortices for the decoding of emotional facial expressions. The lesion analysis was based on statistical analyses of joint volumetric lesion densities resulting in a visualization of lesion overlaps. The advantage of this approach is that small lesion compartments being most often associated with a certain deficit can be identified. However, the effects of other aspects of a lesion, which are possibly also shared by many subjects, are not considered in this approach. A close inspection of the results of Adolphs et al. (Adolphs et al., 2000
) suggests that many of their subjects with somatosensory cortex-related lesions may have also presented with lesions of heteromodal and limbic/ paralimbic (i.e. temporo-parietal) cortices.
Cerebral Areas and Specific Emotions
Case studies of subjects with lesions of the amygdala and surrounding temporal cortices have indicated that the decoding of fear may be most strongly impaired in these subjects (Adolphs et al., 1995; Calder et al., 1996
; Weniger et al., 1997
; Broks et al., 1998
). Functional imaging studies to a large degree confirm these results (Breiter et al., 1996
; Morris et al., 1998
), but also stress the relevance of additional cortical (insula) and subcortical (substantia innominata, striatum) areas (Phillips et al., 1997
; Whalen et al., 1998
). We could not find strong deficits in the decoding of fear in subjects with limbic/paralimbic temporal lesions (see Table 5
). However, previous studies reported deficits in the decoding of fear consistently only after bilateral lesions of the amygdala and temporal cortex (Adolphs et al., 1995
; Young et al., 1995
; Calder et al., 1996
; Rapcsak et al., 2000
).
The attempt to relate the processing of emotions other than fear to specific cortical areas has proven much more difficult. Functional imaging studies (George et al., 1995; Lane et al., 1997
; Paradiso et al., 1997
, 1999
; Reiman et al., 1997
; Teasdale et al., 1999
) failed to establish consistent and specific patterns of regional activity changes during the generation of sadness, or disgust, or happiness. However, all studies found that the medial heteromodal frontal cortex (largely corresponding to medial parts of BA 9) enhances its activity while experiencing any kind of emotion. Our results confirm these findings while showing that subjects with transmodal lesions were impaired in the decoding of fear, surprise, sadness and disgust (Table 5
). We could not find evidence that the decoding of a specific emotion was independently impaired in a given lesion group. Similar findings were obtained by Adolphs et al. (Adolphs et al., 2000
).
It could be argued that the sorting task used in this study demands subjects to distinguish between specific emotions rather than to identify these emotions, and that transmodal lesions may impair the ability to sort while leaving the ability to identify intact. However, we think that our subjects sorted the expressions on the basis of having identified them. We could not find sorting patterns indicating that subjects used sorting categories (i.e. gender, physiognomic aspects) other than emotion identity. Subjects were also explicitly taught to sort according to emotion identity. Furthermore, we found differential performances in the sorting of specific emotions, with joy being most easiest to decode, followed by anger, disgust, sadness, surprise and fear (Table 5).
We hold the opinion that distinguishing and identifying emotions may not depend on separate neural systems. Rather, categorical or dimensional task demands may use different neural subsystems. Adolphs et al. (Adolphs et al., 2000) used a categorical approach for both sorting and identifying emotional expressions and found that subjects impaired in the sorting of emotional facial expressions were also impaired in the identification of emotional facial expressions. In our study, the categorical approach of the sorting task (which is very similar to the sorting task of Adolphs et al.) and the dimensional approach of the rating task yielded different results, with subjects impaired in the sorting task showing no impairment in the rating task (Rating Error; cf. Results: Rating Task).
Role of the Amygdala for the Decoding of Emotional Facial Expressions
It is difficult to evaluate the role of the human amygdala in the decoding of emotional facial expressions because exclusive lesions of the amygdala are extremely rare. In most of the published cases with bilateral amygdala lesions (Jacobson, 1986; Broks et al., 1998
; Adolphs et al., 1999
) substantial lesions of temporal or extratemporal cortical or subcortical (i.e. striatal and thalamic) tissue is evident. Even the few cases with surgical or congenital lesions show evidence of an affection of the entorhinal or temporopolar cortex. However, a recent study investigating 22 subjects after anterior temporal lobectomy or selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy (Boucsein et al., 2001
) showed that deficits in the associative learning of emotional facial expressions depend on the extent of amygdala damage.
Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that severe disturbances in the decoding of emotional facial expressions depend on the presence of multiple lesions affecting the amygdala and transmodal cortices. Functional imaging studies showed that viewing emotional faces, as compared with neutral faces, activated not only the amygdala and basal ganglia regions, but also transmodal (i.e. ventral and dorsolateral frontal, cingular, temporopolar, insular and ventral and lateral temporal) cortical areas (Breiter et al., 1996; Phillips et al., 1997
; Morris et al., 1998
; Whalen et al., 1998
; Blair et al., 1999
; Critchley et al., 2000
).
Transmodal Cortices and Mood State
Subjects with transmodal lesions described themselves more negatively, and in particular were more anxious than control subjects (Table 6). These results are supported by functional imaging studies. Using various methods to generate emotions, activity changes in both limbic/paralimbic and heteromodal cortices could be found (George et al., 1995
; Lane et al., 1997
; Paradiso et al., 1997
, 1999
; Reiman et al., 1997
; Teasdale et al., 1999
).
To a great extent, our data replicate the findings of Irle et al. (Irle et al., 1994), who used the same mood questionnaire as this study to investigate 141 subjects with cortical tumor lesions. They found that transmodal lesions were followed by the worst mood states, but could not find an effect of hemispheric side of lesion. It is possible that a sampling bias, i.e. the exclusion of aphasic left side lesioned subjects may explain this discrepancy (Gainotti et al., 1997
). In the study of Irle et al. (Irle et al., 1994
) only half as many subjects with left-sided as compared with right-sided lesions entered the neurosurgical department in a state allowing formal neuropsychological testing and were thus included in the study. In the present investigation 20 subjects with left-sided lesions were compared to 16 subjects with right-sided lesions.
Conclusions and Directions for Future Research
Our study emphasizes the importance of transmodal cortices for complex human cognitive-emotional behaviors. These behaviors may provide a further example of top-down processing (McClelland and Plaut, 1993). Transmodal cortices are not only capable of establishing multimodal convergence and integration, but also can exert sensory-petal influences upon unimodal cortices, and may provide a directory pointing to the distributed sources of related relevant information (Mesulam, 1998
). Our results suggest that transmodal cortices play a crucial role, and may be even considered as bottleneck structures for many human cognitive and emotional behaviors.
The functional classification used in the present study may provide a useful tool for the investigation of various neuro-cognitive disorders, which to a large degree may be unique to humans. For example, evidence is increasing that schizophrenia represents a disorder in which disruption of transmodal cortical functioning is a central event [for a review see Pearlson et al. (Pearlson et al., 1996)]. The volumes of heteromodal, but not other cortices have been shown to be reduced in schizophrenia (Schlaepfer et al., 1994
). Behavioral and anatomical evidence points to a prefrontal dysfunction in schizophrenia (Weinberger et al., 1986
; Goldman-Rakic & Selemon, 1997
; Stevens et al., 1998
). Andreasen proposed a model defining schizophrenia as a misconnection syndrome involving transmodal cortices, thalamus and cerebellum, resulting in a fundamental and global cognitive deficit (Andreasen, 1999
). The application of imaging tools and neuropathological surveys could help to define the relationship of transmodal cortical abnormalities with the clinical syndrome, neurochemistry and pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
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Notes |
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References |
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