悲伤情绪中的审美体验

The Experience of Beauty Derived from Sorrow

我们着眼于人在悲伤和快乐情绪下对美的体验,对此类过程中的神经机制开展了研究。这两种体验的共同特性在于“美”,却与相反的情感效价相关联。20位受试者在一台功能性磁共振成像扫描仪中观看并重估120幅图片,这些图片已经由每位受试者分为以下四类:悲伤之美、快乐之美、没感觉、难看。在受试者的两种审美体验过程中,内侧眶额叶皮层(mOFC)处于活跃状态。另外,这两种审美体验介入大脑的不同区域:快乐之美涉及与积极情绪相关的大脑区域,悲伤之美则涉及与消极体验相关的大脑区域。在这两种审美体验过程中,受试者小脑的不同区域被激活。功能连通性分析表明,内侧眶额叶皮层的活动受辅助运动区和(或)中间扣带皮层调节,后者已知在由他人悲伤引发的共情体验中会被激活。

We studied the neural mechanisms that are engaged during the experience of beauty derived from sorrow and joy,two experiences that share a common denominator(beauty)but are linked to opposite emotional valences.Twenty subjects viewed and rerated,in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner,120 images which are classified into the following four categories:the beauty in sadness,the beauty in joy,neutral,ugly.The medial orbitofrontal cortex(mOFC)was active during both aesthetic experiences.In addition,the two experiences engaged different parts of the brain:the joyful beauty engaged areas linked to positive emotions while sorrowful beauty engaged areas linked to negative experiences.Separate regions of the cerebellum were engaged through experiencing two different conditions.A functional connectivity analysis indicated that the activity within the mOFC was modulated by the supplementary motor area/middle cingulate cortex,which is known to be engaged during empathetic experiences provoked by other peoples,sadness.