Front Hum Neurosci
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Whereas the somatotopy of finger movements has been extensively studied with neuroimaging, the neural foundations of facial movements remain elusive. Therefore, we systematically studied the neuronal correlates of voluntary facial movements using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman et al., 2002). The facial movements performed in the MRI scanner were defined as Action Units (AUs) and were controlled by a certified FACS coder. ⋯ In contrast to the right hemisphere, in the left hemisphere the representation of AU4 was more lateral and anterior compared to the rest of the facial movements. Our findings support the notion of a partial somatotopic order within the M1 face area confirming the "like attracts like" principle (Donoghue et al., 1992). AUs which are often used together or are similar are located close to each other in the motor cortex.
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Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, a response to distressing and adverse situations. In an aesthetic context, however, sadness is often associated with some degree of pleasure, as suggested by the ubiquity and popularity, throughout history, of music, plays, films and paintings with a sad content. Here, we focus on the fact that music regarded as sad is often experienced as pleasurable. ⋯ Sadness evoked by music is found pleasurable: (1) when it is perceived as non-threatening; (2) when it is aesthetically pleasing; and (3) when it produces psychological benefits such as mood regulation, and empathic feelings, caused, for example, by recollection of and reflection on past events. We also review neuroimaging studies related to music and emotion and focus on those that deal with sadness. Further exploration of the neural mechanisms through which stimuli that usually produce sadness can induce a positive affective state could help the development of effective therapies for disorders such as depression, in which the ability to experience pleasure is attenuated.
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Questions regarding perception of pain in non-communicating patients and the management of pain continue to raise controversy both at a clinical and ethical level. The aim of this study was to examine the cortical response to salient visual, acoustic, somatosensory electric non-nociceptive and nociceptive laser stimuli and their correlation with the clinical evaluation. ⋯ pain arousal may be a primary function also in vegetative state patients while the relevance of other stimulus modalities may indicate the degree of cognitive and motor behavior recovery. This underlines the importance of considering the potential experience of pain also in patients in vegetative state and to appropriately assess a possible treatment also in those patients.
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Aripiprazole is an atypical antipsychotic drug that is characterized by partial dopamine D2 receptor agonism. Its pharmacodynamic profile is proposed to be beneficial in the treatment of cognitive impairment, which is prevalent in psychotic disorders. This study compared brain activation characteristics produced by aripiprazole with that of haloperidol, a typical D2 receptor antagonist, during a task targeting executive functioning. ⋯ No significant group differences between aripiprazole and haloperidol in frontal cortical activation were obtained when corrected for multiple comparisons. This study is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: 2009-016222-14).