{
  "abstract": "Human emotional experiences vary widely in everyday life, yet they are systematically organized within a continuous affective space defined by valence and arousal. Although this circumplex organization has shaped decades of research, its neural implementation remains unclear. Here, we asked whether abstract emotion concepts are encoded using grid-like coordinate principles in the human brain. During fMRI, participants tracked trajectories through affective space conveyed through morphs of facial expressions and sequences of phrases. We found that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) encoded affective space with robust hexadirectional modulation characteristic of grid-like coding. This coordinate representation generalized across stimulus modalities, indicating abstraction beyond perceptual features. The grid-like signal reflected a metric organization of emotion concepts independent of overt behavior, whereas distance-related signals in vmPFC predicted trial-by-trial affective judgements. Together, these findings suggest that emotion knowledge is structured by a grid-like coordinate system in the human brain that can support predictive inference and flexible decision-making.\n\nHuman emotions are organized within a continuous affective space defined by valence and arousal, but how this conceptual structure is represented in the brain remains unclear. This study shows that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes emotion concepts using a grid-like coordinate system that generalizes across modalities and supports affective judgments.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America",
    "Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America"
  ],
  "article_type": "Short Reports",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yumeng Ma"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Philip A. Kragel"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/506wk1ak697yb.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795",
  "fulltext_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795",
  "id": "506wk1ak697yb",
  "issns": [
    "1545-7885"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Brain/Prefrontal cortex"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Head/Face"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Brain mapping/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognition/Decision making"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Decision making"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Neuroimaging/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Nonverbal communication/Facial expressions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Decision making"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Emotions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Computer and information sciences/Software engineering/Preprocessing"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Engineering and technology/Software engineering/Preprocessing"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Brain/Prefrontal cortex"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Head/Face"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Diagnostic medicine/Diagnostic radiology/Magnetic resonance imaging/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Radiology and imaging/Diagnostic radiology/Magnetic resonance imaging/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Imaging techniques/Diagnostic radiology/Magnetic resonance imaging/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Imaging techniques/Neuroimaging/Functional magnetic resonance imaging"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Linguistics/Grammar/Syntax"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Nonverbal communication/Facial expressions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Decision making"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Emotions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7160054639",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-02",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/506wk1ak697yb.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:20:16Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003795"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:diagnostic radiology",
      "subfield": "imaging"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:anatomy",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Emotion knowledge is structured in a grid-like coordinate system in the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex",
  "title_text": "Emotion knowledge is structured in a grid-like coordinate system in the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:20:44Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/506wk1ak697yb",
  "venue": "PLOS Biology",
  "versions": []
}