Some investigations have used neuroimaging techniques to document increased activity in motor areas of the brain during emotional processing (Bremner et al., 1999; Rauch et al., 1996), and nonhuman studies suggest the emotion-action interface may involve connections between the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC: Devinsky, Morrel, & Vogt, 1995). In addition, spinal reflexes appear to be enhanced when individuals observe either pleasant or unpleasant affective stimuli (Bonnet, Bradley, Lang, & Requin, 1995). Most recently, Hajcak et al. (2007) found that emotionally arousing stimuli, whether of positive or negative valence, increase motor cortex excitability. The authors theorized that there may be individual difference in emotional reactivity that may relate to differences in the amount of activation of the motor cortex areas (Hajcak et al., 2007).
