A Pontine Region is a Neural Correlate of the Human Affective Processing Network

Tatia M.C. Lee, Delin Sun, Nichol M.L. Wong, Robin Shao, Weiwei Men, Jianqiao Ge, Kwok Fai So, Jia Hong Gao, Che Hin Chan

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The in vivo neural activity of the pons during the perception of affective stimuli has not been studied despite the strong implications of its role in affective processing. To examine the activity of the pons during the viewing of affective stimuli, and to verify its functional and structural connectivity with other affective neural correlates, a multimodal magnetic resonance imaging methodology was employed in this study. We observed the in vivo activity of the pons when viewing affective stimuli. Furthermore, small-world connectivity indicated that the functional connectivity (FC) between the pons and the cortico-limbic affective regions was meaningful, with the coefficient λ being positively associated with self-reported emotional reactivity. The FC between the pons and the cortico-limbic-striatal areas was related to self-reported negative affect. Corroborating this finding was the observation that the tract passing through the pons and the left hippocampus was negatively related to self-reported positive affect and positively correlated with emotional reactivity. Our findings support the framework that the pons works conjunctively with the distributed cortico-limbic-striatal systems in shaping individuals' affective states and reactivity. Our work paves the path for future research on the contribution of the pons to the precipitation and maintenance of affective disorders.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1799-1805
Number of pages7
JournalEBioMedicine
Volume2
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2015

Keywords

  • Emotion
  • FMRI
  • Pons
  • Raphe Nuclei
  • Small-World Connectivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)

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