Functional MRI study on recognition of facial expression in healthy subjects

Objective To detect the active brain areas response to positive and negative facial emotion stimulus using functional MRI in healthy subjects.Methods Twenty two healthy volunteers underwent functional MRI with GE 1.5 T MR scanner.Experimental task was facial expression recognition,including colorized negative,positive,and neutral facial expression pictures.SPM5 software was used to process fMRI data,and statistically significantly active brain regions and their MNI coordinates were recorded.Results The active brain regions(positive-neutral),by positive face stimuli included: both sides of the medial prefrontal(BA9,10) and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortces,(BA6,44),inferior parietal lobule(BA2,3),temporal(BA20,21,40) and limbic lobes(BA31,34),and nucleus head;left side of the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex(BA6) and the right cerebellar hemisphere.The active brain regions(negative-neutral) by negative face stimuli included: both sides of the inferior parietal lobule(BA40),anterior cingulate cortex and hypothalamus;left side of the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex(BA47) and amygdala;right side of the temporal lobe(BA20,21) and posterior lobe of cerebellum.Conclusion Positive and negative facial expression recognitions activate different brain regions: the negative emotional processing need the involvement of the limbic system and positive emotional processing is more dependent on the frontal lobe.