Neural correlates of emotional reactivity in sensation seeking.
- Authors
- Joseph, Jane E; Liu, Xun; Jiang, Yang; Lynam, Donald; Kelly, Thomas H
- Year
- 2009
- Journal
- Psychological science
- PMID
- 19222814
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02283.x
- PMCID
- PMC3150539
High sensation seeking has been linked to increased risk for drug abuse and other negative behavioral outcomes. This study explored the neurobiological basis of this personality trait using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). High sensation seekers (HSSs) and low sensation seekers (LSSs) viewed high- and low-arousal pictures. Comparison of the groups revealed that HSSs showed stronger fMRI responses to high-arousal stimuli in brain regions associated with arousal and reinforcement (right insula, posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex), whereas LSSs showed greater activation and earlier onset of fMRI responses to high-arousal stimuli in regions involved in emotional regulation (anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). Furthermore, fMRI response in anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate was negatively correlated with urgency. Finally, LSSs showed greater sensitivity to the valence of the stimuli than did HSSs. These distinct neurobiological profiles suggest that HSSs exhibit neural responses consistent with an overactive approach system, whereas LSSs exhibit responses consistent with a stronger inhibitory system.
Brain regions isolated from the contrast of high-arousal versus low-arousal stimuli and the time course of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal change in those regions. In the case of the region on the border of the right insula and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; a), high sensation seekers (HSSs) showed greater activation than low sensation seekers (LSSs), whereas in the case of the anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; b) and left anterior cingulate (c), LSSs showed greater activation than HSSs. In the top row, the red crosshair in each brain map indicates the peak of the corresponding cluster in Table 1. The graph below each map shows the percentage fMRI signal change from the resting baseline condition for each sensation-seeking group as a function of arousal condition. Each graph in the bottom row (d–f) shows hemodynamic response functions over a 20-s time window in the brain region in the illustration above. The fMRI response for high-arousal stimuli relative to the resting baseline is plotted separately for HSSs and LSSs. Error bars represent standard errors of the means. BOLD = blood-oxygenation-level-dependent.
Scatter plots illustrating the association between brain activation and personality traits. For the anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; a) and left anterior cingulate (b) regions activated more strongly for high-arousal than for low-arousal stimuli in low sensation seekers, functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) signal change for high-arousal (HA) versus low-arousal (LA) pictures is plotted as a function of urgency (score on the UPPS Impulsivity Scale; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). For the left putamen region activated more strongly for positive than for negative high-arousal stimuli in low sensation seekers (c), fMRI signal change for positive high-arousal pictures (HAP) versus negative high-arousal pictures (HAN) is plotted as a function of disinhibition (measured by Form V of the Zuckerman Sensation-Seeking Scale; Zuckerman, 1994). Results for both high and low sensation seekers are plotted in all three graphs. The Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates for each region are shown at the top of the figure. See Table 2 for details on the corresponding regression coefficients.
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| Title | Year | PMID |
|---|---|---|
| Predicting sensation seeking from dopamine genes. A candidate-system approach. | 2010 | 20732903 |
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