Figure 3B: ROI definer for emotional reactivity task

Contributed by lukaslengersdorff on Jan. 25, 2023

Collection: Grand Theft Empathy: T-maps

Description: When testing the effects of VVGs on brain activity during the emotional-reactivity task, our main interest lay in a possible modulation of responses in the amygdala, as well as aMCC and AI. To define the corresponding ROIs, we first identified the brain areas that were reliably activated by violent imagery, independent of the experimental manipulation, using whole-brain GLM analysis. For each participant, the design matrix included regressors for the blocks of picture presentations, separate for all four combinations of conditions (Neutral Real, Neutral Game, Violent Real, Violent Game). As nuisance regressors, we included regressors for the rating events. We then pooled the beta images of the first-level contrast Violent > Neutral across both groups, and subjected them to a one-sample t-test.

Task View 3D View