A Novel FMRI Task to Visualize Frontal Lobe Circuitry Associated with Transient Sadness

Leslie Baxter¹, Ryan Smith¹, Richard Fadok¹, Michael Purcell¹, Seban Liu¹, Josef Debbins¹

We developed a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method designed to activate the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sACC) and other frontal regions during transient sadness. We sought to develop a task that would show sufficient and specific activation in individuals to be useful as a potential target for deep brain stimulation treatment (DBS).