Novelty seeking modulates medial prefrontal activity during the anticipation of emotional stimuli

Bermpohl, Felix; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro; Amedi, Amir; Merabet, Lotfi B.; Fregni, Felipe; Wrase, Jana; Schlagenhauf, Florian; Bauer, Michael; Heinz, Andreas; Schlaug, Gottfried; Northoff, Georg

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.12.019

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 164, Issue 1 , Pages 81-85, 30 October 2008

Novelty seeking modulates medial prefrontal activity during the anticipation of emotional stimuli

Felix Bermpohl
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Tel.: +49 30 450517176; fax: +49 30 450517962.
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Amir Amedi
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Physiology and Program of Cognitive Science, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Lotfi B. Merabet
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Felipe Fregni
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Jana Wrase
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Florian Schlagenhauf
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Michael Bauer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany
Andreas Heinz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Gottfried Schlaug
- Laboratory for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Georg Northoff
- Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Magdeburg, Germany

Received 22 August 2007; received in revised form 8 November 2007; accepted 22 December 2007.

Abstract

In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, expectancy cues signaling emotional stimuli were used to study the personality trait of novelty seeking. BOLD responses to emotional expectancy were positively correlated with novelty-seeking scores in the medial prefrontal cortex. This correlation was strongest for the sub-dimension of exploratory excitability.

Keywords: Temperament and character inventory, Medial prefrontal cortex, Functional magnetic resonance imaging