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Extensive functional connectivity between brain areas implicated in mental imagery production and phobic fear during both emotional and neutral mental imagery
University of Gävle, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Department of Occupational Health, Psychology and Sports Sciences, Psychology. Uppsala universitet.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1248-1310
Uppsala universitet.
2024 (English)In: Behavioural Brain Research, ISSN 0166-4328, E-ISSN 1872-7549, Vol. 462, article id 114893Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Mental imagery is used by most people in their day-to-day cognition, for example, in planning, daydreaming, or remembering. Importantly, mental imagery has a powerful influence on emotion and is critically involved in many mental disorders. Thus, understanding the link between mental imagery and emotion is of clinical interest. For example, exposure therapy can be successfully conducted using mental imagery of fear-provoking stimuli, i.e., imaginal exposure. In this vein, accumulating evidence shows that mental imagery of a fearful stimulus produces a similar physiological and neural response as actual perception of the stimulus. Alas, knowledge of the neural processes underlying the link between mental imagery and emotion is limited. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a previous study on imaginal exposure (N = 30) was used to examine the functional connectivity during the production of phobic and neutral mental imagery. Regions of interest were selected from meta-analyses on brain regions consistently recruited during mental imagery production and phobic fear, respectively. Results showed that these regions were positively correlated during both phobic and neutral mental imagery production. Very few differences in functional connectivity between phobic and neutral imagery were found. Specifically, weaker functional connectivity between the supplemental motor area and a region including parts of the left insula and inferior frontal gyrus was observed during phobic (vs neutral) imagery. In conclusion, our findings suggest that brain regions previously implicated in mental imagery production and phobic fear are highly interconnected during the production of both phobic and neutral imagery.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier , 2024. Vol. 462, article id 114893
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Health-Promoting Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-43775DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114893ISI: 001184319800001PubMedID: 38311070Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85185345181OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-43775DiVA, id: diva2:1836304
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2014-01335Available from: 2024-02-08 Created: 2024-02-08 Last updated: 2025-10-02Bibliographically approved

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Ågren, Thomas

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