Ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulation of prepulse inhibition and emotional modulation of the startle reflex: effect of lesion onset

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulation of prepulse inhibition and emotional modulation of the startle reflex: effect of lesion onset Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro1*, David Driscoll2, Tony W. Buchanan3, Antoine Bechara4, Steven W. Anderson2 and Daniel Tranel2 1 University of Murcia, Spain 2 University of Iowa, United States 3 Saint Louis University, United States 4 University of Southern California, United States The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) is involved in inhibitory and emotional processing. Behavioral studies have shown that deficits in these processes are more severe if lesions occur in childhood, rather than adulthood. Our goal was to study both inhibitory and emotional processes in patients with either childhood-onset or adult-onset VMPC damage. To address these processes, we examined the modulation of the startle reflex by early attentional processes and emotion. The sample was composed of 6 adult-onset VMPC, 4 childhood-onset VMPC patients, and 10 healthy participants. Subjects viewed 54 pictures from the IAPS. The startle reflex was evoked by a 105 dB white noise burst in 18 pictures at 300 ms after picture onset (prepulse inhibition) and at 3,800 ms after picture onset in 18 pictures (emotion-modulated startle). Childhood-onset VMPC patients did not show prepulse inhibition, attentional inhibition, or emotion-modulated startle. On the other hand, adult-onset VMPC patients showed preserved prepulse inhibition, impaired attentional inhibition, and preserved emotion-modulated startle. Overall, childhood-onset VMPFC patients lose the ability to protect the processing of a previous stimulus when a second stimulus appears (prepulse inhibition). By contrast, adult-onset VMPC patients preserve this ability, but show a deficit to more deeply process the salience of emotional pictures, in comparison to neutral pictures (attentional inhibition). At later stages of processing, childhood-onset VMPC patients did not show an emotional modulation of startle, while adult-onset VMPC patients did show this effect similar to controls. Hence, early onset damage to the VMPC results in more severe deficits to early and late processing of emotion compared to adult-onset cases. Keywords: emotion, VMPC patients Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Emotion, Motivation and the Social Brain Citation: Sanchez-Navarro J, Driscoll D, Buchanan TW, Bechara A, Anderson SW and Tranel D (2011). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulation of prepulse inhibition and emotional modulation of the startle reflex: effect of lesion onset. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00165 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 18 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain, jpedro@um.es Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro David Driscoll Tony W Buchanan Antoine Bechara Steven W Anderson Daniel Tranel Google Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro David Driscoll Tony W Buchanan Antoine Bechara Steven W Anderson Daniel Tranel Google Scholar Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro David Driscoll Tony W Buchanan Antoine Bechara Steven W Anderson Daniel Tranel PubMed Juan P. Sanchez-Navarro David Driscoll Tony W Buchanan Antoine Bechara Steven W Anderson Daniel Tranel Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.