We investigated whether enhanced interoceptive bodily states of fear would facilitate recognition of the fearful faces. Participants performed an emotional judgment task after a bodily imagery task inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. In the bodily imagery task, participants were instructed to imagine feeling the bodily sensations of two specific somatotopic patterns: a fear-associated bodily sensation (FBS) or a disgust-associated bodily sensation (DBS). They were shown faces expressing various levels of fearfulness and disgust and instructed to classify the facial expression as fear or disgust. We found a stronger bias favoring the “fearful face” under the congruent FBS condition than under the incongruent DBS condition. The brain response to fearful versus intermediate faces increased in the fronto-insular-temporal network under the FBS condition, but not the DBS condition. The fearful face elicited activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and extrastriate body area under the FBS condition relative to the DBS condition. Furthermore, functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex/extrastriate body area and the fronto-insular-temporal network was modulated according to the specific bodily sensation. Our findings suggest that somatotopic patterns of bodily sensation provide informative access to the collective visceral state in the fear processing via the fronto-insular-temporal network.

中文翻译：

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增强的身体恐惧状态促进了对可怕面孔的偏见感知

我们调查了增强的内感受性身体恐惧状态是否会促进对可怕面孔的识别。参与者在功能性磁共振成像扫描仪内完成身体意象任务后执行情绪判断任务。在身体意象任务中，参与者被要求想象感受两种特定躯体模式的身体感觉：恐惧相关身体感觉 (FBS) 或厌恶相关身体感觉 (DBS)。向他们展示表达不同程度恐惧和厌恶的面孔，并指示他们将面部表情分类为恐惧或厌恶。我们发现在一致 FBS 条件下比在不一致 DBS 条件下更偏向于“恐惧的脸”。在 FBS 条件下，额-岛-颞网络中对可怕面孔与中间面孔的大脑反应增加，但在 DBS 条件下没有增加。相对于 DBS 条件，在 FBS 条件下，可怕的面部引起前扣带回皮层和纹外体区域的活动。此外，根据特定的身体感觉调节前扣带回皮层/纹状体区域和额-岛-颞网络之间的功能连接。我们的研究结果表明，身体感觉的体位模式通过额-岛-颞网络提供了对恐惧处理中集体内脏状态的信息访问。相对于 DBS 条件，在 FBS 条件下，可怕的面部引起前扣带回皮层和纹外体区域的活动。此外，根据特定的身体感觉调节前扣带回皮层/纹状体区域和额-岛-颞网络之间的功能连接。我们的研究结果表明，身体感觉的体位模式通过额-岛-颞网络提供了对恐惧处理中集体内脏状态的信息访问。相对于 DBS 条件，在 FBS 条件下，可怕的面部引起前扣带回皮层和纹外体区域的活动。此外，根据特定的身体感觉调节前扣带回皮层/纹状体外体区域和额-岛-颞网络之间的功能连接。我们的研究结果表明，身体感觉的体位模式通过额-岛-颞网络提供了对恐惧处理中集体内脏状态的信息访问。