he role of negative affectivity and social inhibition in perceiving social threat : n fMRI study ariska

Personality is associated with specific emotion regulation styles presumably linked with unique brain activity patterns. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 26 individuals, the neural responses to threatening (fearful and angry) facial and bodily expressions were investigated in relation to negative affectivity and social inhibition. A negative correlation was observed between negative affectivity and activation of the amygdala, fusiform gyrus, insula and hippocampus. Increased activation following threatening stimuli was observed in the left temporo-parietal junction and right extrastriate eywords: motion MRI ndividual differences ocial inhibition egative affectivity body area correlating with more social inhibition traits. Interestingly, the orbitofrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, inferior frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 45) and temporal pole correlated negatively with negative affectivity and positively with social inhibition. Whereas individuals with increased negative affectivity tend to de-activate the core emotion system, socially inhibited people tend to over-activate a broad cortical network. Our findings demonstrate effects of personality traits on the neural coding of ersonality threatening signals. Individual differences in emotion perception Social communication includes intuitively grasping signals of ostility and reacting to signals of distress. Humans are especially ensitive to the gestural signals and facial expressions of other eople, and also use these signals to guide for their own behavor. Previous research has largely focused on the perception of motions from static faces (Adolphs, 2002a; Haxby, Hoffman, & obbini, 2000). But our communicative ability also relies heavily n decoding messages provided by body movements. Dynamic preentations of facial stimuli facilitate processing (Sato, Fujimura, & uzuki, 2008; Sato, Kochiyama, Yoshikawa, Naito, & Matsumura, Please cite this article in press as: Kret, M. E., et al. The role of negative affec Neuropsychologia (2011), doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia. 2011.02. 007 004). Moreover, dynamic information is useful for a better undertanding of the respective contribution of action components in ody expressions (Grèzes, Pichon, & de Gelder, 2007; Pichon, de elder, & Grèzes, 2008). Abbreviations: fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; M, mean; SD, stanard deviation. ∗ Corresponding author at: Room P 511, Postbus 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The etherlands. Tel. : +31 13 466 2495; fax: +31 13 466 2067. E-mail address: b.degelder@uvt.nl (B. de Gelder). 1 Present address: Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, anrin, Inuyama City, Aichi 484-8506, Japan. 028-3932/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. oi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia. 2011.02. 007 © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. People vary in how they perceive emotions and their brain activity patterns differ. For example, healthy individuals with high trait anxiety show increased amygdala activity when they look at threatening faces (Etkin et al., 2004). Yet observers not only differ in how they perceive emotions, but also in how they act in threatening situations. Whereas some of us may fight back when confronted with aggression, others flee or freeze (Schmidt, Richey, Zvolensky, & Maner, 2008). These differences may be mediated by the orbitofrontal cortex (Rolls, 2004). Eisler and Levine (2002) provided evidence that the orbitofrontal cortex is the pivotal area for choice between a fight or flight or other responses in a threatening situation. Since the orbitofrontal cortex plays a role in linking sensory events and positive or negative affective valuation, behavioral selection may be biased by an individual’s personality and by the presence of a stressor (Damasio, 1994; Rolls, 2004). Socially anxious people are afraid of possible scrutiny and negative evaluation by others and strive towards social acceptance. Research supports a positive link between anxiety levels and orbitofrontal cortex activity during threat perception (Stein, Simmons, Feinstein, & Paulus, 2007). Observing another person tivity and social inhibition in perceiving social threat: An fMRI study. in a distressed or aggressive state evokes stress in the observer (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994). The stress response includes facilitation of neural pathways that subserve acute, time limited adaptive functions, such as arousal, vigilance and focused attention, and inhibition of neural pathways that subserve acutely non-