Right-Sided Human Prefrontal Brain Activation During Acquisition of Conditioned Fear

• Published in: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 2; no. 3; pp. 233 - 241
• Main Authors: Fischer, Håkan, Andersson, Jesper L. R, Furmark, Tomas, Wik, Gustav, Fredrikson, Mats
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01-09-2002
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Arousal - physiology; Biological Evolution; Brain Mapping; Brain Stimulation; Conditioned Emotional Responses; Conditioned Fear; Conditioned Stimulus; Conditioning, Classical - physiology; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Evolution; Fear - physiology; Female; Human; Humans; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Prefrontal Cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Prefrontal Cortex/physiology/radionuclide imaging; Regional Blood Flow - physiology; Right Hemisphere; Snakes; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Research Support; Emission-Computed; Tomography; Dominance; Classical/physiology; Conditioning; Non-U.S. Gov't; Cerebral/physiology
• ISSN: 1528-3542; 1931-1516
• DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.2.3.233

This H
2
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O positron emission tomography
(PET) study reports on relative regional cerebral blood flow
(rCBF) alterations during fear conditioning in humans. In
the PET scanner, subjects viewed a TV screen with either visual white
noise or snake videotapes displayed alone, then with electric
shocks, followed by final presentations of white noise and
snakes. Autonomic nervous system responses confirmed fear conditioning
only to snakes. To reveal neural activation during acquisition,
while equating sensory stimulation, scans during snakes with shocks and
white noise alone were contrasted against white noise with shocks and snakes
alone. During acquisition, rCBF increased in the right medial
frontal gyrus, supporting a role for the prefrontal cortex in fear
conditioning to unmasked evolutionary fear-relevant
stimuli.