Ventromedial prefrontal-subcortical systems and the generation of affective meaning

By M. Roy, Daphna Shohamy, Tor D. Wager. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2012

840 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) comprises a set of interconnected regions that integrate information from affective sensory and social cues, long-term memory, and representations of the ‘self’. Though the vmPFC is implicated in a variety of seemingly disparate processes, these processes are organized around a common theme. The vmPFC is not necessary for affective responses per se, but is critical when affective responses are shaped by conceptual information about specific outcomes. The vmPFC thus functions as a hub that links concepts with brainstem systems capable of coordinating organism-wide emotional behavior, a process we describe in terms of the generation of affective meaning, and which could explain the common role played by the vmPFC in a range of experimental paradigms.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4c212a61e82d9b2feda0b206e1f2b48efefa2fad

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

The Computation of Stimulus Values in Simple Choice (2014, background): “A careful look at the studies of SV highlighted in this chapter shows the area of vmPFC identified in all of these humans studies is fairly consistent (Levy and Glimcher, 2012; Roy et al., 2012).”
Shape shifting pain: chronification of back pain shifts brain representation from nociceptive to emotional circuits. (2013, background): “, 2006; Bar, 2009; Mitchell, 2009), and in linking episodic memory with affective qualities of sensory events, and as such playing a unique role in transducing concepts into affective behavioural and physiological responses (Roy et al., 2012).”
Informatic parcellation of the network involved in the computation of subjective value. (2014, background): “A comprehensive understanding of the extent of such a hierarchy of value representation in OFC and VMPFC, however, will likely require both more cross-species work (Wallis, 2012) and careful analysis of how different fMRI acquisition sequences may affect results in more orbital parts of prefrontal c”
The Brain Basis of Positive and Negative Affect: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis of the Human Neuroimaging Literature. (2016, background): “Another recent meta-analysis found relatively more frequent activity in a similar region of VMPFC during positive as compared with negative feelings (but did not exclude valence-general regions; Roy et al. 2012).”
Contributions of episodic retrieval and mentalizing to autobiographical thought: evidence from functional neuroimaging, resting-state connectivity, and fMRI meta-analyses (2014, methodology): “Though the aMPFC shares similar properties with the PCC, the aMPFC is particularly responsive to tasks that involve reflecting upon, or subjectively evaluating, personallysignificant information (Andrews-Hanna, 2012; Roy et al., 2012).”
Towards a Universal Taxonomy of Macro-scale Functional Human Brain Networks (2019, positive): “The network also detects the associative relevance of internal and external stimuli, providing value coding (Roy et al. 2012) and elaboration to perceived events (Bar et al.”
Comment: The Appraising Brain: Towards a Neuro-Cognitive Model of Appraisal Processes in Emotion (2013, neutral): “Whereas the important hub role of the amygdala in the emotional brain is well established, the computational profile of the amygdala is still debated (see Cunningham & Brosch, 2012; Sander, 2009, for discussion).”
Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: a meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. (2014, background): “For example, it may be that vmPFC is not critical for emotion regulation per se, but is recruited in paradigms that rely more heavily on holding conceptual information in mind (Roy et al. 2012).”
Episodic Future Thinking: Mechanisms and Functions (2017, background): “different functions, including memory but also the representation of value and affect [98].”
The wandering brain: Meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of mind-wandering and related spontaneous thought processes (2015, positive): “These regions may allow us to assess the personal significance of a variety of external and internal sources of information and construct an overarching personal meaning (D'Argembeau, 2013; Roy et al., 2012).”