Abstract
To investigate the neural substrates underlying emotional feelings in the absence of a conscious stimulus percept, we presented a visual stimulus in the blind field of partially cortically blind patients and measured cortical activity (by functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) before and after the stimulus had been paired with an aversive event. After pairing, self-reported negative emotional valence and blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) responses in somatosensory association areas were enhanced, whereby somatosensory activity predicted highly corresponding reported feelings and startle reflex amplitudes across subjects. Our data provide direct evidence that cortical activity representing physical emotional states governs emotional feelings.
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Acknowledgements
We thank H. Flor, K. Mathiak, R. Veit, N. Weiskopf, L. Weiskrantz and D. Wildgruber for helpful discussions, B. Newport, M. Hülsmann and B. Wietek for technical support, and H.O. Karnath, P. Stoerig and U. Schiefer for permitting us to include patients from their wards. This study was partly supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Junior Science Program of the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
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Supplementary Fig. 1
Anatomical sections (patients 1-4 with infarction of the primary visual cortex) or fractional diffusion anisotropy maps (patients 5-9 with lesions affecting the optic radiation). Arrows indicate infarction or lesion. Left hemisphere appears at left side of image (neurological convention). (JPG 62 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Clinical data and visual field defects, assessed at a Tübinger Perimeter, of each patient. Hand, dominant hand; (r) retrained right hander; Time, time since lesion in years. Patient numbers refer to those shown in Supplementary Fig. 1. (PDF 48 kb)
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Anders, S., Birbaumer, N., Sadowski, B. et al. Parietal somatosensory association cortex mediates affective blindsight. Nat Neurosci 7, 339–340 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1213
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1213
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