Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32633448›Full record

ArticleHuman brain mapping2020

Negative content enhances stimulus-specific cerebral activity during free viewing of pictures, faces, and words.

Lea Marie Reisch, Martin Wegrzyn, Friedrich G Woermann, Christian G Bien, Johanna Kissler

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Human brain mapping, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
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  4. Shared and unique neural correlates of reappraisal generation and implementation.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  5. Negative targets specifically enhance conscious and unconscious social attention.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026
    Article
  6. The Impact of Pet Videos on Emotional Face Processing.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Lea Marie ReischDepartment of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-9994-0016
Martin WegrzynDepartment of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8025-4075
Friedrich G WoermannEpilepsy Centre Bethel, Krankenhaus Mara, Bielefeld, Germany.
Christian G BienEpilepsy Centre Bethel, Krankenhaus Mara, Bielefeld, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2225-8654
Johanna KisslerDepartment of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-4567-1997
Bielefeld University · DEEvangelisches Krankenhaus Bielefeld · DE

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft BI1254/8-1Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft KI1286/6-1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Negative visual stimuli have been found to elicit stronger brain activation than do neutral stimuli. Such emotion effects have been shown for pictures, faces, and words alike, but the literature suggests stimulus-specific differences regarding locus and lateralization of the activity. In the current functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we directly compared brain responses to passively viewed negative and neutral pictures of complex scenes, faces, and words (nouns) in 43 healthy participants (21 males) varying in age and demographic background. Both negative pictures and faces activated the extrastriate visual cortices of both hemispheres more strongly than neutral ones, but effects were larger and extended more dorsally for pictures, whereas negative faces additionally activated the superior temporal sulci. Negative words differentially activated typical higher-level language processing areas such as the left inferior frontal and angular gyrus. There were small emotion effects in the amygdala for faces and words, which were both lateralized to the left hemisphere. Although pictures elicited overall the strongest amygdala activity, amygdala response to negative pictures was not significantly stronger than to neutral ones. Across stimulus types, emotion effects converged in the left anterior insula. No gender effects were apparent, but age had a small, stimulus-specific impact on emotion processing. Our study specifies similarities and differences in effects of negative emotional content on the processing of different types of stimuli, indicating that brain response to negative stimuli is specifically enhanced in areas involved in processing of the respective stimulus type in general and converges across stimuli in the left anterior insula.

Indexed as

Brain MappingReadingAdolescentAdultAmygdalaCerebral CortexEmotionsFacial ExpressionFacial RecognitionFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMalePattern Recognition, VisualYoung AdultemotionfacesfMRIpicturesvisual processingwords

Identifiers

PMID32633448
PMCPMC7502837
OpenAlexW3041586943

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.