The Neural Correlates of Aversive Auditory Stimulation

Previous neuroimaging studies indicate that the human amygdala activates during exposure to aversive visual, olfactory and gustatory stimuli. To examine amygdala responses to aversive auditory stimuli, we exposed healthy human subjects to unpleasant sounds while regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assayed with O-15 PET. Eight subjects, all of whom described themselves as reactive to aversive sounds, participated in the study. Relative to white noise, the aversive sounds produced significant rCBF increases in the lateral amygdala/claustrum region. Significant activations also localized to the dorsal brainstem, medial temporal pole, basal forebrain (nucleus accumbens), insula, right auditory association cortices, putamen, thalamus and cerebellum. These data indicate that the amygdala responds to aversive auditory stimuli in a manner similar to its response to unpleasant stimuli in other sensory modalities. The data further highlight a widely distributed network of cortical and subcortical areas activated during exposure to aversive sounds.

Annotations for: The Neural Correlates of Aversive Auditory Stimulation

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What they did. Used 0-15 pet [@zaldNeuralCorrelatesAversive2002, p. 1]

weexposed healthy human subjects to unpleasant soundswhile regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assayed with O-15 PET. [@zaldNeuralCorrelatesAversive2002, p. 1]

Relative to white noise, the aver-sive sounds produced significant rCBF increases inthe lateral amygdala/claustrum region. [@zaldNeuralCorrelatesAversive2002, p. 1]

Methods

Used large FWHM [@zaldNeuralCorrelatesAversive2002, p. 2]

10 mm full-width at half-maximum [@zaldNeuralCorrelatesAversive2002, p. 2]

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Annotations for: The Neural Correlates of Aversive Auditory Stimulation

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Methods