Influences of disgust sensitivity on hemodynamic responses towards a disgust-inducing film clip

The major goal of the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate the influence of disgust sensitivity on hemodynamic responses during disgust induction. Fifteen subjects viewed three different film excerpts (duration: 135 s each) with disgust-evoking, threatening and neutral content. The films were presented in a block design with four repetitions of each condition. Afterwards, subjects gave affective ratings for the films and answered the questionnaire for the assessment of disgust sensitivity (QADS, [Schienle, A., Walter, B., Stark, R., Vaitl, D., 2002b. Ein Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Ekelempfindlichkeit (FEE) [A questionnaire for the assessment of disgust sensitivity, QADS]. Klin. Psychol. Psychother. 31, 110–120]). The subjects’ overall disgust sensitivity was positively related to their experienced disgust, as well as to their prefrontal cortex activation during the disgust condition. Further, there was a positive correlation between subjects’ scores on the QADS subscale spoilage/decay and their amygdala activation (r =0.76). This was reasonable since the disgust film clip depicted a cockroach-invasion and the subscale spoilage/decay contains, among others, an item asking for disgust towards cockroaches. The study stresses, in accordance to previous studies, the importance of considering personality traits when studying affective responses in fMRI studies.