Propensity and sensitivity measures of fear and disgust are differentially related to emotion-specific brain activation

Neuroimaging studies on individual differences in experiencing disgust and fear have indicated that disgust propensity and trait anxiety are able to moderate brain activity. The moderating role of disgust sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity has not been investigated thus far. Both sensitivity traits refer to the tendency of a person to perceive harmful consequences of experiencing fear and disgust. Eighteen female subjects viewed and subsequently rated pictures for the elicitation of disgust, fear and a neutral affective state. The viewing of the aversive pictures was associated with activation of visual processing areas, the amygdala, the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). In the disgust condition, disgust propensity was positively correlated with activation of attention-related areas (parietal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)) and brain regions involved in valence and arousal processing (OFC, insula). For the fear condition, we observed positive correlations between trait anxiety and activation of the ACC, the insula, and the OFC. Correlations between brain activity and sensitivity measures were exclusively negative and concerned areas crucial for emotion regulation, such as the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (MPFC, DLPFC). Thus, individuals high in disgust/anxiety sensitivity might have difficulties to successfully control the specific affective experience.