Stability/reliability of fMRI activations
- Stable, reliable fMRI markers may prove useful in tracking emotional reactivity, as well as therapeutic responses (e.g., to medications).
- Paradigms employing fearful facial expressions have proven robust in activating the amygdala in adults. However, in children, these activations are less reliably obtained when using neutral faces as a baseline condition and may reflect arousal more than valence.
- State anxiety may track the response to neutral (i.e., potentially ambiguous) faces in adults and children.
- Arousal and valence may be separable, with dorsal amygdala responses reflecting arousal relatively more than the ventral amygdala which tracks valence.
