Prelude to passion: limbic activation by "unseen" drug and sexual cues.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The human brain responds to recognizable signals for sex and for rewarding drugs of abuse by activation of limbic reward circuitry. Does the brain respond in similar way to such reward signals even when they are "unseen", i.e., presented in a way that prevents their conscious recognition? Can the brain response to "unseen" reward cues predict the future affective response to recognizable versions of such cues, revealing a link between affective/motivational processes inside and outside awareness?

Methodology/principal findings

We exploited the fast temporal resolution of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the brain response to "unseen" (backward-masked) cocaine, sexual, aversive and neutral cues of 33 milliseconds duration in male c

SUBMITTER: Childress AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2204052 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature