Two Types Of Disgust Materials: Disgust Sensitivity Related FMRI Research

Disgust is one of the six basic emotions. Disgust is the guardian of the borders of both the bodily self and the social self. Meanwhile, disgust could also affect people's moral judgments, and affect the relationships of both inside and outside groups. Disgust emotion plays a import role in our daily life. So far, the investigation about the perception of disgust material has been an important field of cognitive neuroscience. Disgust sensitivity is the tendency to experience this emotion, varies considerably across individuals. Recent studies correlated scores on disgust sensitivity scale with brain activity associated with viewing disgust-inducing videos,disgust-inducing pictures or disgust-inducing foods. Disgust facial expression is a special disgust stimulus, which activated similar structures as disgust pictures.This paper mainly focused on the study of individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to disgusting pictures, and the study of whether individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to disgusting facial expressions, based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The current study analized the brain activation during perception of disgusting pictures and examined how individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to a wide range of disgusting pictures, then analized the brain activation during perception of disgusting facial expressions and examined how individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to disgust facial expressions. Some aspects of this dissertation have been put forward:1,Study of the brain activity during perception of disgusting pictures and examined how individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to a wide range of disgusting pictures. An perception of several disgusting pictures experiment based on fMRI was designed, including disgusting and neutral pictures, in order to study the disgusting pictures. Then the SPM8 software based on General Linear Model (GLM) were employed to analyze data. The results showed that during perception of disgusting pictures, brain activation exists mainly in the insula, amygdala, pallidum, anterior cingulate cortex, and occipital gyrus. Additionally, found moderate correlations between disgust scores and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in these neural substrates.2,Study of the brain activity during perception of disgusting facial expressions and examined how individual differences in disgust sensitivity modulate neural responses to disgust facial expressions. A perception of several disgusting facial expressions experiment based on fMRI was designed, including disgusting and neutral expressions, in order to study the disgust facial expressions. Then the SPM8 software based on General Linear Model (GLM) were employed to analyze data. The results showed that during perception of disgust facial expressions, brain activation exists mainly in the insula, frontal operculum, fusiform gyrus, parietal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, temporal cortex, and occipital gyrus. Additionally, found no significant correlations between disgust scores and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in these neural substrates.