A neurofunctional signature of subjective disgust generalizes to oral distaste and socio-moral contexts

Xianyang Gan, Feng Zhou, Ting Xu, Xiaobo Liu, Ran Zhang, Zihao Zheng, Xi Yang, Xinqi Zhou, Fangwen Yu, Jialin Li*, Ruifang Cui, Lan Wang, Jiajin Yuan, Dezhong Yao, Benjamin Becker*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

While disgust originates in the hard-wired mammalian distaste response, the conscious experience of disgust in humans strongly depends on subjective appraisal and may even extend to socio-moral contexts. Here, in a series of studies, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging with machine-learning-based predictive modelling to establish a comprehensive neurobiological model of subjective disgust. The developed neurofunctional signature accurately predicted momentary self-reported subjective disgust across discovery (n = 78) and pre-registered validation (n = 30) cohorts and generalized across core disgust (n = 34 and n = 26), gustatory distaste (n = 30) and socio-moral (unfair offers; n = 43) contexts. Disgust experience was encoded in distributed cortical and subcortical systems, and exhibited distinct and shared neural representations with subjective fear or negative affect in interoceptive-emotional awareness and conscious appraisal systems, while the signatures most accurately predicted the respective target experience. We provide an accurate functional magnetic resonance imaging signature for disgust with a high potential to resolve ongoing evolutionary debates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1383-1402
Number of pages20
JournalNature human behaviour
Volume8
Issue number7
Early online date1 Apr 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2024

Keywords

  • STRUCTURE COEFFICIENTS
  • INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
  • BRAIN ACTIVATION
  • PATTERN-ANALYSIS
  • NEURAL BASIS
  • BAD TASTE
  • EMOTION
  • FEAR
  • FMRI
  • DOMAINS

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