Psychological theories of emotion often highlight the dynamic quality of the affective experience, yet neuroimaging studies of affect have traditionally relied on static stimuli that lack ecological validity. Consequently, the brain regions that represent emotions and feelings as they unfold remain unclear. Recently, dynamic, model-free analytical techniques have been employed with naturalistic stimuli to better capture time-varying patterns of activity in the brain; yet, few studies have focused on relating these patterns to changes in subjective feelings. Here, we address this gap, using intersubject correlation and phase synchronization to assess how stimulus-driven changes in brain activity and connectivity are related to two aspects of emotional experience: emotional intensity and enjoyment. During fMRI scanning, healthy volunteers listened to a full-length piece of music selected to induce sadness. After scanning, participants listened to the piece twice while simultaneously rating the intensity of felt sadness or felt enjoyment. Activity in the auditory cortex, insula, and inferior frontal gyrus was significantly synchronized across participants. Synchronization in auditory, visual, and prefrontal regions was significantly greater in participants with higher measures of a subscale of trait empathy related to feeling emotions in response to music. When assessed dynamically, continuous enjoyment ratings positively predicted a moment-to-moment measure of intersubject synchronization in auditory, default mode, and striatal networks, as well as the orbitofrontal cortex, whereas sadness predicted intersubject synchronization in limbic and striatal networks. The results suggest that stimulus-driven patterns of neural communication in emotional processing and high-level cortical regions carry meaningful information with regards to our feeling in response to a naturalistic stimulus.

中文翻译：

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动态主体间神经同步反映对悲伤音乐的情感反应

情绪的心理学理论通常强调情感体验的动态质量，但情感的神经影像学研究传统上依赖于缺乏生态有效性的静态刺激。因此，在情绪和感觉展开时代表情绪和感觉的大脑区域仍不清楚。最近，动态、无模型分析技术已与自然刺激一起使用，以更好地捕捉大脑中随时间变化的活动模式。然而，很少有研究将这些模式与主观感受的变化联系起来。在这里，我们解决了这一差距，使用主体间相关性和相位同步来评估大脑活动和连通性的刺激驱动变化如何与情绪体验的两个方面相关：情绪强度和享受。在 fMRI 扫描过程中，健康的志愿者会听一段选择来引发悲伤的完整音乐。扫描后，参与者听了两遍，同时评价悲伤或享受的强度。听觉皮层、脑岛和额下回的活动在参与者之间显着同步。听觉、视觉和前额叶区域的同步在参与者中显着更大，在与对音乐的感受情绪相关的特质共情子量表的测量值较高的参与者中。当动态评估时，持续享受评级积极预测听觉、默认模式和纹状体网络以及眶额皮层中主体间同步的即时测量，而悲伤预测边缘和纹状体网络中的主体间同步。