PNAS：经历强烈情绪使人们的大脑活动同步

　　

生物通报道：芬兰Aalto大学和Turku PET中心的研究团队发现经历强烈情绪会使不同个体的大脑活动同步化。这项研究发表在Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences杂志上。

人类的情绪具有很强的感染力。当人们观察到其他人的情感表达（例如笑）时，常会使自己也产生一致的情绪反应。人类个体间的这种情绪状态的同步效应，对社交活动很有帮助。当一个团队中的成员都分享着共同的情绪状态时，他们的大脑和身体会以相似的模式对环境信息进行处理和反应。

芬兰Aalto大学和Turku PET中心的研究人员发现，经历强烈的情感会使不同人的大脑活动同步。研究人员让实验参与者观看表现不愉快、中立情绪和愉快情绪的短片，并通过功能磁共振成像fMRI对其大脑活动进行检测。扫描后，研究者让参与者再次观看影片，不断经历从愉快到不愉快的情绪波动，一直处于情感刺激或情绪平复的循环中。研究者使用Pearson相关系数来处理fMRI数据，并生成ISC（inter-subject correlation analysis）。

研究发现，观看相似情绪化事件短片的参与者，他们的大脑区域的活动网络出现同步。同时研究显示负情绪效价valence与大脑情绪处理网络（丘脑thalamus、腹侧纹状体ventral striatum、岛叶insula）和默认活动大脑网络（楔前叶precuneus, 颞顶联合区temporoparietal junction,内侧前额皮层 medial prefrontal cortex, 颞上沟后部posterior superior temporal sulcus）的ISC升高有关。说明当人们感到强烈的不愉快时，位于大脑前额和中部区域的情绪处理网络同步化。

而高唤醒度arousal与体感皮层somatosensory cortices 、注意力网络、视皮层visual cortex、双侧顶内沟bilateral intraparietal sulci和额叶眼区的ISC升高有关。说明经历令人振奋的事件会使人们负责视觉、注意力和触觉感知的大脑网络活动同步化。

“通过分享他人的情绪状态，人们的体感somatosensory和神经系统帮助自身理解他人的意愿和行动，并实现与他人情绪同步。这种自我协调机制能促进社交和群体合作，”芬兰Aalto大学的Lauri Nummenmaa教授说。

这项研究成果对目前人类情绪和群体行为的神经学模型有很大帮助。同样也加深了人们对社会情绪处理失常相关的精神疾病的理解。

（生物通编辑：叶予）

生物通推荐原文摘要：

Emotions promote social interaction by synchronizing brain activity across individuals

Sharing others’ emotional states may facilitate understanding their intentions and actions. Here we show that networks of brain areas “tick together” in participants who are viewing similar emotional events in a movie. Participants’ brain activity was measured with functional MRI while they watched movies depicting unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant emotions. After scanning, participants watched the movies again and continuously rated their experience of pleasantness–unpleasantness (i.e., valence) and of arousal–calmness. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to derive multisubject voxelwise similarity measures [intersubject correlations (ISCs)] of functional MRI data. Valence and arousal time series were used to predict the moment-to-moment ISCs computed using a 17-s moving average. During movie viewing, participants' brain activity was synchronized in lower- and higher-order sensory areas and in corticolimbic emotion circuits. Negative valence was associated with increased ISC in the emotion-processing network (thalamus, ventral striatum, insula) and in the default-mode network (precuneus, temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus). High arousal was associated with increased ISC in the somatosensory cortices and visual and dorsal attention networks comprising the visual cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulci, and frontal eye fields. Seed-voxel–based correlation analysis confirmed that these sets of regions constitute dissociable, functional networks. We propose that negative valence synchronizes individuals’ brain areas supporting emotional sensations and understanding of another’s actions, whereas high arousal directs individuals’ attention to similar features of the environment. By enhancing the synchrony of brain activity across individuals, emotions may promote social interaction and facilitate interpersonal understanding.