Article

Examining changes in brain activation linked with emotion-inducing
stimuli is essential to the study of emotions. Due to the ecological potential of
techniques such as virtual reality (VR), inspection of whether brain activation
in response to emotional stimuli can be modulated by the three-dimensional (3D)
properties of the images is important. OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to
test whether the activation of brain areas involved in the emotional processing
of scenarios of different valences can be modulated by 3D. Therefore, the focus
was made on the interaction effect between emotion-inducing stimuli of different
emotional valences (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral valences) and visualization
types (2D, 3D). However, main effects were also analyzed. METHODS: The effect of
emotional valence and visualization types and their interaction were analyzed
through a 3 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA. Post-hoc t-tests were performed under a
ROI-analysis approach. RESULTS: The results show increased brain activation for
the 3D affective-inducing stimuli in comparison with the same stimuli in 2D
scenarios, mostly in cortical and subcortical regions that are related to
emotional processing, in addition to visual processing regions. CONCLUSIONS: This
study has the potential of clarify brain mechanisms involved in the processing of
emotional stimuli (scenarios' valence) and their interaction with
three-dimensionality.

Langue : ANGLAIS