A General Neural Network for Processing Stimuli Known to Elicit Sexual Arousal, Disgust, or Amusement.

A General Neural Network for Processing Stimuli Known to Elicit Sexual Arousal, Disgust, or Amusement, Sherif G. Karama, McGill University and University of Montreal; Mario Beauregard, University of Montreal

An important question regarding the neural underpinnings of human emotion is whether there exists a general neural network involved in processing emotional stimuli across all emotions. We obtained brain activation differentials by comparing validated visual dynamic stimuli shown to elicit amusement, disgust, or sexual arousal with controlled neutral stimuli. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a conjunction analysis, we found these dynamic visual stimuli produced a significantly increased bilateral activation of the same widely-distributed neural network for both men and women. The neural network, found to be activated by subsequently implementing a conjunction analysis between emotion and gender, comprises most limbic and some paralimbic areas and includes areas considered involved in motivational drives, attention, and subjective feeling states. Finding a distributed common pattern of activation as induced by such a wide range of emotional stimuli strongly suggests the existence, at least for the visual modality, of a general neural network that is preferentially activated when one is processing emotional dynamic stimuli. Furthermore, these results suggest that most brain imaging findings pertaining to the characterization of the neural network involved in processing sexual stimuli are not specific to such stimuli.