A Neuroanatomy of Positive Affect Display - Subcortical Fiber Pathways Relevant for Initiation and Modulation of Smiling and Laughing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We here report two cases of stimulation induced pathological laughter (PL) under thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) for essential tremor and interpret the effects based on a modified neuroanatomy of positive affect display (PAD).

Objective/hypothesis

The hitherto existing neuroanatomy of PAD can be augmented with recently described parts of the motor medial forebrain bundle (motorMFB). We speculate that a co-stimulation of parts of this fiber structure might lead to a non-volitional modulation of PAD resulting in PL.

Methods

We describe the clinical and individual imaging workup and combine the interpretation with normative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-tractography descriptions of motor connections of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) (n = 200 su

SUBMITTER: Coenen VA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9022623 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature