Functional activity in the visual cortex was assessed using functional
magnetic resonance imaging technology while participants viewed a ser
ies of pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant pictures. Coronal images at fo
ur different locations in the occipital cortex were acquired during ea
ch of eight 12-s picture presentation periods (on) and 12-s interpictu
re interval (off). The extent of functional activation was larger in t
he right than the left hemisphere and larger in the occipital than in
the occipitoparietal regions during processing of all picture contents
compared with the interpicture intervals. More importantly, functiona
l activity was significantly greater in all sampled brain regions when
processing emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) pictures than when proc
essing neutral stimuli. In Experiment 2, a hypothesis that these diffe
rences were an artifact of differential eye movements was ruled out. W
hereas both emotional and neutral pictures produced activity centered
on the calcarine fissure (Area 17), only emotional pictures also produ
ced sizable clusters bilaterally in the occipital gyrus, in the right
fusiform gyrus, and in the right inferior and superior parietal lobule
s.