Reproducibility of amygdala activation in facial emotion processing at 7T

Publication date: Available online 26 January 2020Source: NeuroImageAuthor(s): Nicole Geissberger, Martin Tik, Ronald Sladky, Michael Woletz, Anna-Lisa Schule, David Willinger, Christian WindischbergerAbstractDespite its importance as the prime method for non-invasive assessment of human brain function, functional MRI (fMRI) was repeatedly challenged with regards to the validity of the fMRI-derived brain activation maps. Amygdala fMRI was particularly targeted, as the amygdala's anatomical position in the ventral brain combined with strong magnetic field inhomogeneities and proximity to large vessels pose considerable obstacles for robust activation mapping.In this high-resolution study performed at ultra-high field (7T) fMRI, we aimed at (1) investigating systematic replicability of amygdala group-level activation in response to an established emotion processing task by varying task instruction and acquisition parameters and (2) testing for intra- and intersession reliability.At group-level, our results show statistically significant activation in bilateral amygdala and fusiform gyrus for each of the runs acquired. In addition, while fusiform gyrus activations are consistent across runs and sessions, amygdala activation levels show habituation effects across runs. This amygdala habituation effect is replicated in a session repeated two weeks later. Varying task instruction between matching emotions and matching persons does not change amygdala activation strength. Also, comp...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research