Neural activities underlying environmental and personal risk identification tasks.

The present study examined domain specific neural activities associated with the identification of environmental and personal risks. We recorded neural activities from subjects, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potential, when they identified risky and safe environmental and personal events. We found that, relative to the semantic control task, both environmental and personal risk identification tasks were associated with increased sustained activities in the medial frontal and supramarginal gyrus. Moreover, relative to the personal risk identification task, the environmental risk identification task resulted in greater transient activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. ERPs recorded over the parietal area associated with the environmental risk identification task occurred earlier than that linked to the personal risk identification task. Our findings suggest that the extent of involvement and temporal courses of retrieval of emotional experiences may distinguish between the environmental and personal risk identification tasks.