An Intracranial EEG Study of the Neural Dynamics of Musical Valence Processing.

Diana Omigie (1, 2) , Delphine Dellacherie (3, 2) , Dominique Hasboun (4, 5, 1) , Nathalie George (1) , Sylvain Clement (2) , Michel Baulac (5, 6) , Claude Adam (7, 6) , Séverine Samson (2, 6)

1 ICM - Institut du Cerveau et de la Moëlle Epinière = Brain and Spine Institute
2 LNFP - Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies
3 Centre National de Référence des Maladies Respiratoires Rares
4 ARAMIS - Algorithms, models and methods for images and signals of the human brain = Algorithmes, modèles et méthodes pour les images et les signaux du cerveau humain [ICM Paris]
5 CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière [AP-HP]
6 Cortex et Epilepsie [Paris]
7 CRICM - Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière

The processing of valence is known to recruit the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and relevant sensory areas. However, how these regions interact remains unclear. We recorded cortical electrical activity from 7 epileptic patients implanted with depth electrodes for presurgical evaluation while they listened to positively and negatively valenced musical chords. Time-frequency analysis suggested a specific role of the orbitofrontal cortex in the processing of positively valenced stimuli while, most importantly, Granger causality analysis revealed that the amygdala tends to drive both the orbitofrontal cortex and the auditory cortex in theta and alpha frequency bands, during the processing of valenced stimuli. Results from the current study show the amygdala to be a critical hub in the emotion processing network: specifically one that influences not only the higher order areas involved in the evaluation of a stimulus's emotional value but also the sensory cortical areas involved in the processing of its low-level acoustic features.

Mots clés: erps; consonance; depth electrodes; amygdala; granger

Domaines: Neurosciences; Psychologie et comportements

Diana Omigie, Delphine Dellacherie, Dominique Hasboun, Nathalie George, Sylvain Clement, et al.. An Intracranial EEG Study of the Neural Dynamics of Musical Valence Processing.. Cerebral Cortex, 2015, 25 (11), pp.4038-4047. ⟨10.1093/cercor/bhu118⟩. ⟨hal-01240612⟩