Alterations of attention and emotional processing following childhood-onset damage to the prefrontal cortex

Juan P Sánchez-Navarro; David Driscoll; Steven W Anderson; Daniel Tranel; Antoine Bechara; Tony W Buchanan

doi:10.1037/a0035415

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Alterations of attention and emotional processing following childhood-onset damage to the prefrontal cortex

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Alterations of attention and emotional processing following childhood-onset damage to the prefrontal cortex

Juan P Sánchez-Navarro, David Driscoll, Steven W Anderson, Daniel Tranel, Antoine Bechara and Tony W Buchanan

Behavioral neuroscience, Vol.128(1), pp.1-11

02/2014

DOI: 10.1037/a0035415

PMCID: PMC4324722

PMID: 24377423

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http://doi.org/10.1037/a0035415View

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Abstract

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially the medial sector, plays a crucial role in emotional processing. Damage to this region results in impaired processing of emotional information, perhaps attributable to an inability to initiate and maintain attention toward emotional materials, a process that is normally automatic. Childhood onset damage to the PFC impairs emotional processing more than adult-onset PFC damage. The aim of this work was to study the involvement of the PFC in attention to emotional stimuli, and to explore how age at lesion onset affects this involvement. To address these issues, we studied both the emotional and attentional modulation of the startle reflex. Our sample was composed of 4 patients with childhood-onset PFC damage, 6 patients with adult-onset PFC damage, and 10 healthy comparison participants. Subjects viewed 54 affective pictures; acoustic startle probes were presented at 300 ms after picture onset in 18 pictures (as an index of attentional modulation) and at 3,800 ms after picture onset in 18 pictures (as an index of emotional modulation). Childhood-onset PFC patients did not show attentional or emotional modulation of the response, in contrast to adult-onset PFC damage and comparison participants. Early onset damage to the PFC results, therefore, in more severe dysfunction in the processing of affective stimuli than adult-onset PFC damage, perhaps reflecting limited plasticity in the neural systems that support these processes.

Emotions - physiology

Affect - physiology

Humans

Middle Aged

Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology

Male

Prefrontal Cortex - pathology

Attention - physiology

Age of Onset

Reflex, Startle

Adult

Female

Photic Stimulation

Details

Title: Subtitle: Alterations of attention and emotional processing following childhood-onset damage to the prefrontal cortex
Creators: Juan P Sánchez-Navarro - Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology, University of Murcia
David Driscoll - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa
Steven W Anderson - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa
Daniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa
Antoine Bechara - Department of Psychology, Brain and Creativity Institute and Dornsife Imaging Center, University of Southern California
Tony W Buchanan - Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Behavioral neuroscience, Vol.128(1), pp.1-11
DOI: 10.1037/a0035415
PMID: 24377423
PMCID: PMC4324722
NLM abbreviation: Behav Neurosci
ISSN: 0735-7044
eISSN: 1939-0084
Publisher: United States
Grant note: R03 MH076815 / NIMH NIH HHS P01 NS019632 / NINDS NIH HHS P01 19632 / PHS HHS
Language: English
Date published: 02/2014
Academic Unit: Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984002338602771

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