The medial prefrontal cortex is believed to be involved in emotional experiences, but also in situations in which attention and self-monitoring is required. Therefore, it might be that the medial prefrontal cortex is not only activated by the emotional state per se, but rather through the task requirements that were used to induce emotions in the laboratory. The present study investigated the change of oxygenation in the left and right prefrontal cortex measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) from 14 subjects during two kinds of emotional induction, which differed in the self-monitoring requirements. The task with the higher self-monitoring requirements resulted in an increased concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (O(2)HB). This activation pattern was not observed during the emotional induction with the fewer self-monitoring requirements, although the subjective ratings indicated that both tasks induced comparable emotional states. The results indicate that task requirements should be taken into account when investigating the neural substrate of emotions.

中文翻译：

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通过 NIRS 测量的情绪诱导任务要求激活前额叶

内侧前额叶皮层被认为参与情绪体验，但也参与需要注意和自我监控的情况。因此，内侧前额叶皮层可能不仅被情绪状态本身激活，而且还通过实验室中用于诱发情绪的任务要求激活。本研究调查了 14 名受试者在两种情绪诱导期间用近红外光谱 (NIRS) 测量的左右前额叶皮层氧合的变化，这两种情绪诱导的自我监控要求不同。具有更高自我监控要求的任务导致氧合血红蛋白 (O(2)HB) 浓度增加。在自我监控要求较少的情绪诱导期间未观察到这种激活模式，尽管主观评分表明这两项任务都引起了类似的情绪状态。结果表明，在调查情绪的神经基础时，应考虑任务要求。