Ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity differentiates sick from healthy faces: Associations with inflammatory responses and disease avoidance motivation

Background: Humans are able to discern the health status of others using olfactory and visual cues, and subsequently shift behavior to make infection less likely. However, little is known about how this process occurs. The present study examined the neural regions involved in differentiating healthy from sick individuals using visual cues. Methods: While undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, participants (N = 42) viewed facial photos of 30 individuals (targets) who had been injected with an inflammatory challenge-low-dose endotoxin (i. e., sick) or placebo (i.e., healthy), and rated how much they liked each face. We examined regions implicated in processing either threat (amygdala, anterior insula) or cues that signal safety (ventromedial prefrontal cortex [VMPFC]), and how this activity related to their liking of targets and cytokine levels (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha) exhibited by the targets. Results: Photos of sick faces were rated as less likeable compared to healthy faces, and the least liked faces were those individuals with the greatest inflammatory response. While threat-related regions were not significantly active in response to viewing sick faces, the VMPFC was more active in response to viewing healthy (vs. sick) faces. Follow-up analyses revealed that participants tended to have lower VMPFC activity when viewing the least liked faces and the faces of those with the greatest inflammatory response. Conclusions: This work builds on prior work implicating the VMPFC in signaling the presence of safe, nonthreatening visual stimuli, and suggests the VMPFC may be sensitive to cues signaling relative safety in the context of pathogen threats.

Automated summary

This study examined neural regions involved in differentiating healthy from sick individuals using visual cues. The results showed that threat-related regions were not significantly active when viewing sick faces, but the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was more active in response to healthy faces. Participants tended to have lower VMPFC activity when viewing the least liked faces and the faces of those with the greatest inflammatory response.