Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain in Emotional Processing

The purpose of the protocol is to localize the neural regions and systems mediating the forms of knowledge representations hypothesized by the principal investigator to be stored in the human prefrontal cortex. Utilizing experimental neuropsychological tasks during functional MRI on healthy adult volunteers, we will investigate hypotheses regarding the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in social cognition and emotional processing as opposed to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, involved in nonsocial-events (planning, problem solving, economic exchange and reasoning). We will also attempt to determine the relationship between non-frontal neural structures involved in emotional expression, such as the amygdala, and those frontal neural structures involved in executive functions that may modulate emotion. Another goal of our study is to test different fMRI sequences to determine which one gives us the best quality of signal in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (affected by signal drop-out due to magnetic susceptibility artifacts). The data that we collect in this protocol will be of value in (1) identifying a set of neural regions and distributed networks mediating the forms of knowledge representation stored in the prefrontal cortex, and (2) contributing to optimization of functional imaging of the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex at high field strength (3 Tesla). We will also use the data obtained in these studies to constrain theories of frontal lobe function and to provide evidence for the role of specific frontal cortex sectors in specific cognitive functions.