Romantic jealousy is positively associated with fronto-striatal, insula and limbic responses to angry faces

Romantic jealousy is a complex social emotion combining the different primary emotions of anger, fear and sadness. Previous evidence has suggested the involvement of fronto-striatal dopaminergic circuitry in clinical pathological jealousy, although little is known about overlaps with the neural representation of primary emotions involved in non-morbid jealousy. In the current study, 85 healthy subjects underwent fMRI during resting state and an emotional face recognition paradigm. A total of 150 faces (happy, angry, fearful, sad, neutral) were presented and subjects were required to identify the expression and rate its intensity. Trait romantic jealousy was assessed using the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale. Behavioral results showed that only intensity ratings of angry faces were positively associated with subjects jealousy scores. During processing of angry versus neutral expression faces, subjects with higher jealousy scores exhibited greater activation in the right thalamus, insula, fusiform gyrus and hippocampus, left dorsal striatum and superior parietal lobule and bilateral cerebellum and inferior frontal gyrus after controlling for trait aggression and sex. Functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and caudate was also increased. No associations with resting state functional connectivity were found. Overall, the present study demonstrates an association between romantic jealousy and increased intensity ratings of angry faces as well as in activity and functional connectivity of dorsal striatal-inferior frontal circuitry. Thus, increased emotional responsivity to social threat and enhanced activity in limbic regions and dopaminergic fronto-striatal circuitry may be features of both non-morbid and pathological jealousy.