TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual awareness, emotion, and gamma band synchronization
AU - Luo, Qian
AU - Mitchell, Derek
AU - Cheng, Xi
AU - Mondillo, Krystal
AU - McCaffrey, Daniel
AU - Holroyd, Tom
AU - Carver, Frederick
AU - Coppola, Richard
AU - Blair, James
N1 - Funding Information:
NIMH Intramural Research Program. Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges of this article was provided by the NIMH Intramural Research Program.
PY - 2009/8
Y1 - 2009/8
N2 - What makes us become aware? A popular hypothesis is that if cortical neurons fire in synchrony at a certain frequency band (gamma), we become aware of what they are representing. We tested this hypothesis adopting brain-imaging techniques with good spatiotemporal resolution and frequency-specific information. Specifically, we examined the degree to which increases in event-related synchronization (ERS) in the gamma band were associated with awareness of a stimulus (its detectability) and/or the emotional content of the stimulus. We observed increases in gamma band ERS within prefrontal-anterior cingulate, visual, parietal, posterior cingulate, and superior temporal cortices to stimuli available to conscious awareness. However, we also observed increases in gamma band ERS within the amygdala, visual, prefrontal, parietal, and posterior cingulate cortices to emotional relative to neutral stimuli, irrespective of their availability to conscious access. This suggests that increased gamma band ERS is related to, but not sufficient for, consciousness.
AB - What makes us become aware? A popular hypothesis is that if cortical neurons fire in synchrony at a certain frequency band (gamma), we become aware of what they are representing. We tested this hypothesis adopting brain-imaging techniques with good spatiotemporal resolution and frequency-specific information. Specifically, we examined the degree to which increases in event-related synchronization (ERS) in the gamma band were associated with awareness of a stimulus (its detectability) and/or the emotional content of the stimulus. We observed increases in gamma band ERS within prefrontal-anterior cingulate, visual, parietal, posterior cingulate, and superior temporal cortices to stimuli available to conscious awareness. However, we also observed increases in gamma band ERS within the amygdala, visual, prefrontal, parietal, and posterior cingulate cortices to emotional relative to neutral stimuli, irrespective of their availability to conscious access. This suggests that increased gamma band ERS is related to, but not sufficient for, consciousness.
KW - Consciousness
KW - Emotion
KW - Gamma
KW - MEG
KW - Synchronization
KW - Visual awareness
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U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhn216
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhn216
M3 - Article
C2 - 19047574
AN - SCOPUS:67651121916
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 19
SP - 1896
EP - 1904
JO - Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
JF - Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
IS - 8
ER -