Search

Aesthetic preference occurs in everyday experience. Studies have suggested that aesthetic preference (such as observing other's motion) affects social interaction via enhanced neural processing. This study investigated the effect of aesthetic preference on neural activities, in response to walking motion. Twenty participants observed biological motion (BM) representing three walking types (model-posture, good-posture, and bad-posture) and their scrambled motion (SM) during the event-related potentials measurement. The N200 and N300 amplitudes, reflecting the early sensory and the later integrational processes, were analyzed. The results revealed that the N200 amplitude of BM was greater than that of SM in the good- and bad-posture conditions. The N300 amplitude was larger in BM than SM regardless of the walking type. Exploratory regression analyses indicated that the N300 for BM, but not for SM or N200, was more negatively deflected with the increase of aesthetic preference scores. Our findings suggest that aesthetic preference enhances the later integrational process of BM represented in the N300 amplitude, whereas the early perceptual process (reflected by the N200 amplitude) is potentially modulated by familiarity rather than aesthetic preference in other's motion., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The subjective perception of social support plays a crucial role in human well-being. However, its structural neural substrates remain unknown. We hypothesized that the amygdala, specifically its laterobasal and superficial subregions, which have been suggested to serve social functions, could be associated with the level of perceived social support. To test this hypothesis, we assessed perceived social support using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. In addition, we measured the volume and shape of the amygdala using structural magnetic resonance imaging in 49 healthy participants. Global amygdala volume in the left hemisphere was positively associated with the perceived social support score after adjusting for total cerebral volume, sex, age, intelligence, and five-factor personality domains. The local shape of the laterobasal and superficial subregions of the left amygdala showed the same association with perceived social support. These data suggest that the social subregions of the left amygdala are associated with the implementation of perceived social support., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Neuroimaging studies have reported greater activation of the human amygdala in response to emotional facial expressions, especially for fear. However, little is known about how fast this activation occurs. We investigated this issue by recording the intracranial field potentials of the amygdala in subjects undergoing pre-neurosurgical assessment (n=6). The subjects observed fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Time-frequency statistical parametric mapping analyses revealed that the amygdala showed greater gamma-band activity in response to fearful compared with neutral facial expressions at 50-150 ms, with a peak at 135 ms. These results indicate that the human amygdala is able to rapidly process fearful facial expressions., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)