The affective processing of loved familiar faces and names: Integrating fMRI and heart rate

by Jaime Vila, Cristina Morato, Ignacio Lucas, Pedro Guerra, Ana María Castro-Laguardia, María Antonieta Bobes

The neuroscientific study of love has been boosted by an extended corpus of research on face-identity recognition. However, few studies have compared the emotional mechanisms activated by loved faces and names and none have simultaneously examined fMRI and autonomic measures. The present study combined fMRI with the heart rate response when 21 participants (10 males) passively viewed the face or the written name of 4 loved people and 4 unknown people. The results showed accelerative patterns in heart rate, together with brain activations, which were significantly higher for loved people than for unknown people. Significant correlations were found between heart rate and brain activation in frontal areas, for faces, and in temporal areas, for names. The results are discussed in the context of previous studies using the same passive viewing procedure, highlighting the relevance of integrating peripheral and central measures in the scientific study of positive emotion and love.