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Parietal somatosensory association cortex mediates affective blindsight

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 339–340 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

To investigate the neural substrates underlying emotional feelings in the absence of a conscious stimulus percept, we presented a visual stimulus in the blind field of partially cortically blind patients and measured cortical activity (by functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) before and after the stimulus had been paired with an aversive event. After pairing, self-reported negative emotional valence and blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) responses in somatosensory association areas were enhanced, whereby somatosensory activity predicted highly corresponding reported feelings and startle reflex amplitudes across subjects. Our data provide direct evidence that cortical activity representing physical emotional states governs emotional feelings.

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Figure 1: Experimental design.
Figure 2: Startle eyeblink amplitudes and reported emotional valence during blind-field stimulation, relative to blank screen baseline, before (pre) and after (post) the visual stimulus had been paired with an aversive scream.
Figure 3: Cortical activity during blind-field stimulation after the visual stimulus had been paired with the aversive event.

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Acknowledgements

We thank H. Flor, K. Mathiak, R. Veit, N. Weiskopf, L. Weiskrantz and D. Wildgruber for helpful discussions, B. Newport, M. Hülsmann and B. Wietek for technical support, and H.O. Karnath, P. Stoerig and U. Schiefer for permitting us to include patients from their wards. This study was partly supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Junior Science Program of the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Gartenstrasse 29, Tübingen, 72074, Germany

    Silke Anders, Niels Birbaumer & Martin Lotze

  2. Department of Pathophysiology of Vision and Neuroophthalmology, University Eye Hospital Tübingen, Schleichstrasse 12-16, Tuebingen, 72076, Germany

    Bettina Sadowski

  3. Department of Neuroradiology, Section for Experimental MR of the CNS, University Hospital Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Strasse 3, Tübingen, 72076, Germany

    Michael Erb, Irina Mader & Wolfgang Grodd

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  1. Silke Anders
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  2. Niels Birbaumer
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  3. Bettina Sadowski
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  5. Irina Mader
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Correspondence to Silke Anders.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Anatomical sections (patients 1-4 with infarction of the primary visual cortex) or fractional diffusion anisotropy maps (patients 5-9 with lesions affecting the optic radiation). Arrows indicate infarction or lesion. Left hemisphere appears at left side of image (neurological convention). (JPG 62 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Clinical data and visual field defects, assessed at a Tübinger Perimeter, of each patient. Hand, dominant hand; (r) retrained right hander; Time, time since lesion in years. Patient numbers refer to those shown in Supplementary Fig. 1. (PDF 48 kb)

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Anders, S., Birbaumer, N., Sadowski, B. et al. Parietal somatosensory association cortex mediates affective blindsight. Nat Neurosci 7, 339–340 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1213

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