A subcortical pathway through the superior colliculus and pulvinar to the amygdala is commonly assumed to mediate the non-conscious processing of affective visual stimuli. We review anatomical and physiological data that argue against the notion that such a pathway plays a prominent part in processing affective visual stimuli in humans. Instead, we propose that the primary role of the amygdala in visual processing, like that of the pulvinar, is to coordinate the function of cortical networks during evaluation of the biological significance of affective visual stimuli. Under this revised framework, the cortex has a more important role in emotion processing than is traditionally assumed.

/pdf/emotion-processing-and-the-amygdala-from-a-low-road-to-many-qb34gbuiik.pdf

Emotion processing and the amygdala: from a 'low road' to 'many roads' of evaluating biological significance

Intellectual abilities in Alzheimer's disease patients: Contributions from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI)

Reward contains separable psychological components of learning, incentive motivation and pleasure. Most computational models have focused only on the learning component of reward, but the motivational component is equally important in reward circuitry, and even more directly controls behavior. Modeling the motivational component requires recognition of additional control factors besides learning. Here I discuss how mesocorticolimbic mechanisms generate the motivation component of incentive salience. Incentive salience takes Pavlovian learning and memory as one input and as an equally important input takes neurobiological state factors (e.g. drug states, appetite states, satiety states) that can vary independently of learning. Neurobiological state changes can produce unlearned fluctuations or even reversals in the ability of a previously learned reward cue to trigger motivation. Such fluctuations in cue-triggered motivation can dramatically depart from all previously learned values about the associated reward outcome. Thus, one consequence of the difference between incentive salience and learning can be to decouple cue-triggered motivation of the moment from previously learned values of how good the associated reward has been in the past. Another consequence can be to produce irrationally strong motivation urges that are not justified by any memories of previous reward values (and without distorting associative predictions of future reward value). Such irrationally strong motivation may be especially problematic in addiction. To understand these phenomena, future models of mesocorticolimbic reward function should address the neurobiological state factors that participate to control generation of incentive salience.

/pdf/from-prediction-error-to-incentive-salience-mesolimbic-21jpp399qc.pdf

From prediction error to incentive salience: mesolimbic computation of reward motivation.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2958738/file/6776062.pdf

Brain mechanisms for emotional influences on perception and attention: What is magic and what is not

https://blog.ub.ac.id/fawzy/files/2013/09/The-rst-taste-is-always-with-the-eyes-A-meta-analysis-on-the-neural-correlates-of.pdf

The first taste is always with the eyes: A meta-analysis on the neural correlates of processing visual food cues

http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/Zalddh/ZaldLab/resources/Publications/rmp10app.pdf

All I saw was the cake. Hunger effects on attentional capture by visual food cues

How much we desire a meal depends on both the constituent foods and how hungry we are, though not every meal becomes more desirable with increasing hunger. The brain therefore needs to be able to integrate hunger and meal properties to compute the correct incentive value of a meal. The present study investigated the functional role of the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in mediating hunger and dish attractiveness. Furthermore, it explored neural responses to dish descriptions particularly susceptible to value-increase following fasting. We instructed participants to rate how much they wanted food menu items while they were either hungry or sated, and compared the rating differences in these states. Our results point to the representation of food value in the amygdala, and to an integration of attractiveness with hunger level in the orbitofrontal cortex. Dishes particularly desirable during hunger activated the thalamus and the insula. Our results specify the functions of evaluative structures in the context of food attractiveness, and point to a complex neural representation of dish qualities which contribute to state-dependent value.

/pdf/neural-correlates-of-appetite-and-hunger-related-evaluative-34aczzregl.pdf

Neural correlates of appetite and hunger-related evaluative judgments.

http://pnl.bwh.harvard.edu/pub/papers/nestor_2005SchizRes.pdf

Retrieval-induced forgetting in schizophrenia

http://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/Users/smost/2011_Piech_EtAl_Neuropsychologia.pdf

Attentional capture by emotional stimuli is preserved in patients with amygdala lesions

http://zaldlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu/resources/Publications/rmp10np.pdf

Richard M. Piech

Papers

All I saw was the cake. Hunger effects on attentional capture by visual food cues

Neural correlates of appetite and hunger-related evaluative judgments.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in schizophrenia

Attentional capture by emotional stimuli is preserved in patients with amygdala lesions

Fear-enhanced visual search persists after amygdala lesions