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Semantic monitoring of words with emotional connotation during fMRI: Contribution of anterior left frontal cortex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2002

Bruce Crosson*
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Veterans Affairs RR & D Brain Rehabilitation Research Center, VA Medical Center, Gainesville, Florida
M. Allison Cato
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology
Joseph R. Sadek
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology
Didem Gökçay
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Computer Information Sciences and Engineering
Russell M. Bauer
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology
Ira S. Fischler
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Psychology
Leeza Maron
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Clinical and Health Psychology
Kaundinya Gopinath
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering
Edward J. Auerbach
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Radiology
Samuel R. Browd
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Neuroscience University of Florida Health Science Center, Gainesville, Florida
Richard W. Briggs
Affiliation:
McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida and Departments of Radiology
*
Bruce Crosson, Ph.D., Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida Health Science Center, Box 100165, Gainesville, FL 32610-0165. E-mail: bcrosson@hp.ufl.edu

Abstract

Previous studies showed that cortex in the anterior portions of the left frontal and temporal lobes participates in generating words with emotional connotations and processing pictures with emotional content. If these cortices process the semantic attribute of emotional connotation, they should be active whenever processing emotional connotation, without respect to modality of input or mode of output. Thus, we hypothesized that they would activate during monitoring of words with emotional connotations. Sixteen normal subjects performed semantic monitoring of words with emotional connotations, animal names, and implement names during fMRI. Cortex in the anterior left frontal lobe demonstrated significant activity for monitoring words with emotional connotations compared to monitoring tone sequences, animal names, or implement names. Together, the current and previous results implicate cortex in the anterior left frontal lobe in semantic processing of emotional connotation, consistent with connections of this cortex to paralimbic association areas. Current findings also indicate that neural substrates for processing emotional connotation are independent of substrates for processing the categories of living and nonliving things.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2002

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