Sean C. McInerney

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human brain was used to study whether the amygdala is activated in response to emotional stimuli, even in the absence of explicit knowledge that such stimuli were presented. Pictures of human faces bearing fearful or happy expressions were presented to 10 normal, healthy subjects by using a backward masking procedure that resulted in 8 of 10 subjects reporting that they had not seen these facial expressions. The backward masking procedure consisted of 33 msec presentations of fearful or happy facial expressions, their offset coincident with the onset of 167 msec presentations of neutral facial expressions. Although subjects reported seeing only neutral faces, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI signal in the amygdala was significantly higher during viewing of masked fearful faces than during the viewing of masked happy faces. This difference was composed of significant signal increases in the amygdala to masked fearful faces as well as significant signal decreases to masked happy faces, consistent with the notion that the level of amygdala activation is affected differentially by the emotional valence of external stimuli. In addition, these facial expressions activated the sublenticular substantia innominata (SI), where signal increases were observed to both fearful and happy faces--suggesting a spatial dissociation of territories that respond to emotional valence versus salience or arousal value. This study, using fMRI in conjunction with masked stimulus presentations, represents an initial step toward determining the role of the amygdala in nonconscious processing.

Previous research in non-human primates has shown that the superior longitudinal fascicle (SLF), a major intrahemispheric fiber tract, is actually composed of four separate components. In humans, only post-mortem investigations have been available to examine the trajectory of this tract. This study evaluates the hypothesis that the four subcomponents observed in non-human primates can also be found in the human brain using in vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI). The results of our study demonstrated that the four subdivisions could indeed be identified and segmented in humans. SLF I is located in the white matter of the superior parietal and superior frontal lobes and extends to the dorsal premotor and dorsolateral prefrontal regions. SLF II occupies the central core of the white matter above the insula. It extends from the angular gyrus to the caudal-lateral prefrontal regions. SLF III is situated in the white matter of the parietal and frontal opercula and extends from the supramarginal gyrus to the ventral premotor and prefrontal regions. The fourth subdivision of the SLF, the arcuate fascicle, stems from the caudal part of the superior temporal gyrus arches around the caudal end of the Sylvian fissure and extends to the lateral prefrontal cortex along with the SLF II fibers. Since DT-MRI allows the precise definition of only the stem portion of each fiber pathway, the origin and termination of the subdivisions of SLF are extrapolated from the available data in experimental material from non-human primates.

The anterior cingulate cortex has been activated by color Stroop tasks, supporting the hypothesis that it is recruited to mediate response selection or allocate attentional resources when confronted with competing information-processing streams. The current study used the newly developed "Counting Stroop" to identify the mediating neural substrate of cognitive interference. The Counting Stroop, a Stroop variant allowing on-line response time measurements while obviating speech, was created because speaking produces head movements that can exceed those tolerated by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), preventing the collection of vital performance data. During this task, subjects report by button-press the number of words (1-4) on the screen, regardless of word meaning. Interference trials contain number words that are incongruent with the correct response (e.g., "two" written three times), while neutral trials contain single semantic category common animals (e.g., "bird"). Nine normal right-handed adult volunteers underwent fMRI while performing the Counting Stroop. Group fMRI data revealed significant (P < or = 10(-4) activity in the cognitive division of anterior cingulate cortex when contrasting the interference vs. neutral conditions. On-line performance data showed 1) longer reaction times for interference blocks than for neutral ones, and 2) decreasing reaction times with practice during interference trials (diminished interference effects), indicating that learning occurred. The performance data proved to be a useful guide in analyzing the image data. The relative difference in anterior cingulate activity between the interference and neutral conditions decreased as subjects learned the task. These findings have ramifications for attentional, cognitive interference, learning, and motor control mechanism theories.