Decoding the emotional valence of future thoughts

Abstract

Affective future thinking allows us to prepare for future outcomes, but we know little about neural representation of emotional future simulations. We used a multi-voxel pattern analysis to determine whether patterns of neural activity can reliably distinguish between positive and negative future simulations. Neural patterning in the anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortices distinguished positive from negative future simulations, indicating that these regions code for the emotional valence of future events. These results support prior findings that anterior medial regions contain representations of emotions across various stimuli, and contribute to identifying potential rewarding outcomes of future events. More broadly, these results demonstrate that the phenomenological features of future thinking can be decoded using neural activity.

Emotion in the mind's eye: Imagination for adaptive cognition

“…showed that the vmPFC tracked the perceived pleasantness of de novo simulations involving the integration of disparate familiar autobiographical elements—a pattern that emerged while controlling for the pleasantness of the individual elements. Other work shows that the vmPFC, as well as the anterior cingulate cortex (in a region of interest spanning dorsal and ventral components), codes for the emotional valence of both positive and negative future simulations 67 . We note that the function of the vmPFC is historically debated, as its role in cognition is complex and multifaceted (often associated with high‐level terms, such as emotion , value , schema processing , etc.).…”

“…Beyond the hippocampus, the literature suggests a role of the vmPFC-another DN MTL node-in evaluative aspects of imagination, namely, appraising the affective significance of an event. 28,29,63,[66][67][68] In one clever study, Benoit et al 28 showed that the vmPFC tracked the perceived pleasantness of de novo simulations involving the integration of disparate familiar autobiographical elements-a pattern that emerged while controlling for the pleasantness of the individual elements. Other work shows that the vmPFC, as well as the anterior cingulate cortex (in a region of interest spanning dorsal and ventral components), codes for the emotional valence of both positive and negative future simulations.…”

“…Other work shows that the vmPFC, as well as the anterior cingulate cortex (in a region of interest spanning dorsal and ventral components), codes for the emotional valence of both positive and negative future simulations. 67 We note that the function of the vmPFC is historically debated, as its role in cognition is complex and multifaceted (often associated with high-level terms, such as emotion, value, schema processing, etc.). One higher-order view is that the vmPFC is critical when conceptual information generated during simulation is needed to drive valuation processes and behavioral responding, dubbed "affective meaning making."…”

“…Some prior literature suggests that salience network engagement may be reserved for attentional gating to environmental stimuli (i.e., only when there is retinal input) but is not implicated in internally generated stimuli. 63 The literature-mostly comprised of studies of dynamic emotional imagination-is somewhat mixed, as salience network nodes are implicated in some 33,67,86,93,94 but not other 22,28,62,63,68 studies. In light of these mixed findings, it is possible that the lack of consistent involvement of the salience network or its key nodes may be due to variability in the reliance on anticipated versus anticipatory emotions in some dynamic simulation tasks (with the latter perhaps more likely to evoke salience network involvement; see Ref.…”

“…Beyond the hippocampus, the literature suggests a role of the vmPFC—another DN MTL node—in evaluative aspects of imagination, namely, appraising the affective significance of an event 28,29,63,66‐68 . In one clever study, Benoit et al 28 .…”