Brain Emotion Signatures, 2

Researchers at the University Medical Center of Geneva in Switzerland were able to identify signatures of emotion in the primary auditory cortex (PAC) of study participants. Using fMRI and MVPA, they were able to match distinct patterns of brain activity as different emotions were heard by the brain. This technique enabled them to identify which emotion was being heard and processed in the brains of the participants from other alternatives. This discovery pointed out that the PAC is not just a sensory region of the brain but also plays a specialized role in the processing of distinct emotions. Understanding the emotions of others is vital to one’s social skills. The authors hope these findings may help researchers unravel the distorted brain pathways that may manifest as unhelpful emotional responses in some psychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, autism, depression . . .).