scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions

31 Oct 1996-Nature (Nature Publishing Group)-Vol. 383, Iss: 6603, pp 812-815
TL;DR: Direct in vivo evidence of a differential neural response in the human amygdala to facial expressions of fear and happiness is reported, providing direct evidence that the humangdala is engaged in processing the emotional salience of faces, with a specificity of response to fearful facial expressions.
Abstract: The amygdala is thought to play a crucial role in emotional and social behaviour. Animal studies implicate the amygdala in both fear conditioning and face perception. In humans, lesions of the amygdala can lead to selective deficits in the recognition of fearful facial expressions and impaired fear conditioning, and direct electrical stimulation evokes fearful emotional responses. Here we report direct in vivo evidence of a differential neural response in the human amygdala to facial expressions of fear and happiness. Positron-emission tomography (PET) measures of neural activity were acquired while subjects viewed photographs of fearful or happy faces, varying systematically in emotional intensity. The neuronal response in the left amygdala was significantly greater to fearful as opposed to happy expressions. Furthermore, this response showed a significant interaction with the intensity of emotion (increasing with increasing fearfulness, decreasing with increasing happiness). The findings provide direct evidence that the human amygdala is engaged in processing the emotional salience of faces, with a specificity of response to fearful facial expressions.

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report




Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A model for the organization of this system that emphasizes a distinction between the representation of invariant and changeable aspects of faces is proposed and is hierarchical insofar as it is divided into a core system and an extended system.

4,430 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Perception-Action Model (PAM), together with an understanding of how representations change with experience, can explain the major empirical effects in the literature and can also predict a variety of empathy disorders.
Abstract: There is disagreement in the literature about the exact nature of the phenomenon of empathy. There are emotional, cogni- tive, and conditioning views, applying in varying degrees across species. An adequate description of the ultimate and proximate mecha- nism can integrate these views. Proximately, the perception of an object's state activates the subject's corresponding representations, which in turn activate somatic and autonomic responses. This mechanism supports basic behaviors (e.g., alarm, social facilitation, vicar- iousness of emotions, mother-infant responsiveness, and the modeling of competitors and predators) that are crucial for the reproduc- tive success of animals living in groups. The Perception-Action Model (PAM), together with an understanding of how representations change with experience, can explain the major empirical effects in the literature (similarity, familiarity, past experience, explicit teach- ing, and salience). It can also predict a variety of empathy disorders. The interaction between the PAM and prefrontal functioning can also explain different levels of empathy across species and age groups. This view can advance our evolutionary understanding of empa- thy beyond inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism and can explain different levels of empathy across individuals, species, stages of de- velopment, and situations.

3,350 citations


Cites background from "A differential neural response in t..."

  • ...& Dolan, R. J. (1999) The neural consequences of conflict between...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A critical comparison of findings across individual studies is provided and suggests that separate brain regions are involved in different aspects of emotion.

3,349 citations


Cites background from "A differential neural response in t..."

  • ...Strikingly, of the eight studies that examined cerebral responses to fearful faces, six pointed to the critical involvement of the amygdala (Morris et al., 1996; Breiter et al., 1996; Phillips et al., 1997; Phillips et al., 1998a; Morris et al., 1998a; Whalen et al., 1998a)....

    [...]

  • ...Amygdala activations occur throughout various evocative stimuli, including fear faces (Morris et al., 1996; Breiter et al., 1996; Phillips et al., 1997), aversive pictures (Irwin et al....

    [...]

  • ...Morris et al. (1996) found that the amygdalar response to fearful faces showed a significant interaction with the intensity of emotion (increasing with increasing fearfulness) and that the activation was not contingent upon the explicit processing of facial expression, as subjects were instructed…...

    [...]

  • ...Activations in the basal ganglia, including the ventral striatum and putamen, have been observed in response to happy faces (Whalen et al., 1998a; Morris et al., 1996, 1998a; Phillips et al., 1998b), pleasant pictures (Lane et al., 1997a; Lane et al., 1999; Davidson and Irwin, 1999),…...

    [...]

  • ...Amygdala activations occur throughout various evocative stimuli, including fear faces (Morris et al., 1996; Breiter et al., 1996; Phillips et al., 1997), aversive pictures (Irwin et al., 1996; Taylor et al., 1998; Simpson et al., 2000), as well as sad (Blair et al., 1999) and happy faces (Breiter…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of available studies examining the human amygdala covers both lesion and electrical stimulation studies as well as the most recent functional neuroimaging studies, and attempts to integrate basic information on normal amygdala function with the current understanding of psychiatric disorders, including pathological anxiety.
Abstract: Here we provide a review of the animal and human literature concerning the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning, considering its potential influence over autonomic and hormonal changes, motor behavior and attentional processes. A stimulus that predicts an aversive outcome will change neural transmission in the amygdala to produce the somatic, autonomic and endocrine signs of fear, as well as increased attention to that stimulus. It is now clear that the amygdala is also involved in learning about positively valenced stimuli as well as spatial and motor learning and this review strives to integrate this additional information. A review of available studies examining the human amygdala covers both lesion and electrical stimulation studies as well as the most recent functional neuroimaging studies. Where appropriate, we attempt to integrate basic information on normal amygdala function with our current understanding of psychiatric disorders, including pathological anxiety.

2,781 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This finding links music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.
Abstract: We used positron emission tomography to study neural mechanisms underlying intensely pleasant emotional responses to music. Cerebral blood flow changes were measured in response to subject-selected music that elicited the highly pleasurable experience of “shivers-down-the-spine” or “chills.” Subjective reports of chills were accompanied by changes in heart rate, electromyogram, and respiration. As intensity of these chills increased, cerebral blood flow increases and decreases were observed in brain regions thought to be involved in reward/motivation, emotion, and arousal, including ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. These brain structures are known to be active in response to other euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse. This finding links music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.

2,254 citations

References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a general approach that accommodates most forms of experimental layout and ensuing analysis (designed experiments with fixed effects for factors, covariates and interaction of factors).
Abstract: + Abstract: Statistical parametric maps are spatially extended statistical processes that are used to test hypotheses about regionally specific effects in neuroimaging data. The most established sorts of statistical parametric maps (e.g., Friston et al. (1991): J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 11:690-699; Worsley et al. 119921: J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 12:YOO-918) are based on linear models, for example ANCOVA, correlation coefficients and t tests. In the sense that these examples are all special cases of the general linear model it should be possible to implement them (and many others) within a unified framework. We present here a general approach that accommodates most forms of experimental layout and ensuing analysis (designed experiments with fixed effects for factors, covariates and interaction of factors). This approach brings together two well established bodies of theory (the general linear model and the theory of Gaussian fields) to provide a complete and simple framework for the analysis of imaging data. The importance of this framework is twofold: (i) Conceptual and mathematical simplicity, in that the same small number of operational equations is used irrespective of the complexity of the experiment or nature of the statistical model and (ii) the generality of the framework provides for great latitude in experimental design and analysis.

9,614 citations

Book
01 Jan 1872
TL;DR: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Introduction to the First Edition and Discussion Index, by Phillip Prodger and Paul Ekman.
Abstract: Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Figures Plates Preface to the Anniversary Edition by Paul Ekman Preface to the Third Edition by Paul Ekman Preface to the Second Edition by Francis Darwin Introduction to the Third Edition by Paul Ekman The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Introduction to the First Edition 1. General Principles of Expression 2. General Principles of Expression -- continued 3. General Principles of Expression -- continued 4. Means of Expression in Animals 5. Special Expressions of Animals 6. Special Expressions of Man: Suffering and Weeping 7. Low Spirits, Anxiety, Grief, Dejection, Despair 8. Joy, High Spirits, Love, Tender Feelings, Devotion 9. Reflection - Meditation - Ill-temper - Sulkiness - Determination 10. Hatred and Anger 11. Disdain - Contempt - Disgust - Guilt - Pride, Etc. - Helplessness - Patience - Affirmation and Negation 12. Surprise - Astonishment - Fear - Horror 13. Self-attention - Shame - Shyness - Modesty: Blushing 14. Concluding Remarks and Summary Afterword, by Paul Ekman APPENDIX I: Charles Darwin's Obituary, by T. H. Huxley APPENDIX II: Changes to the Text, by Paul Ekman APPENDIX III: Photography and The Expression of the Emotions, by Phillip Prodger APPENDIX IV: A Note on the Orientation of the Plates, by Phillip Prodger and Paul Ekman APPENDIX V: Concordance of Illustrations, by Phillip Prodger APPENDIX VI: List of Head Words from the Index to the First Edition NOTES NOTES TO THE COMMENTARIES INDEX

9,342 citations

01 Jan 1976

4,265 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A general technique that facilitates nonlinear spatial (stereotactic) normalization and image realignment is presented that minimizes the sum of squares between two images following non linear spatial deformations and transformations of the voxel (intensity) values.
Abstract: This paper concerns the spatial and intensity transformations that map one image onto another. We present a general technique that facilitates nonlinear spatial (stereotactic) normalization and image realignment. This technique minimizes the sum of squares between two images following nonlinear spatial deformations and transformations of the voxel (intensity) values. The spatial and intensity transformations are obtained simultaneously, and explicitly, using a least squares solution and a series of linearising devices. The approach is completely noninteractive (automatic), nonlinear, and noniterative. It can be applied in any number of dimensions. Various applications are considered, including the realignment of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) time-series, the linear (affine) and nonlinear spatial normalization of positron emission tomography (PET) and structural MRI images, the coregistration of PET to structural MRI, and, implicitly, the conjoining of PET and MRI to obtain high resolution functional images. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

3,715 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
15 Dec 1994-Nature
TL;DR: Findings suggest the human amygdala may be indispensable to recognize fear in facial expressions, but is not required to recognize personal identity from faces, and constrains the broad notion that the amygdala is involved in emotion.
Abstract: Studies in animals have shown that the amygdala receives highly processed visual input, contains neurons that respond selectively to faces, and that it participates in emotion and social behaviour Although studies in epileptic patients support its role in emotion, determination of the amygdala's function in humans has been hampered by the rarity of patients with selective amygdala lesions Here, with the help of one such rare patient, we report findings that suggest the human amygdala may be indispensable to: (1) recognize fear in facial expressions; (2) recognize multiple emotions in a single facial expression; but (3) is not required to recognize personal identity from faces These results suggest that damage restricted to the amygdala causes very specific recognition impairments, and thus constrains the broad notion that the amygdala is involved in emotion

2,091 citations