A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions
J. S. Morris,Chris D. Frith,David I. Perrett,Duncan Rowland,Andrew W. Young,Andrew J. Calder,Raymond J. Dolan +6 more
TLDR
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.read more
Citations
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Hemispheric Asymmetry in the Experience of Emotion: A Perspective from Functional Imaging
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Prior experience as a stimulus category confound: an example using facial expressions of emotion
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Disorders of emotional behaviour.
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The stimuli drive the response: An fMRI study of youth processing adult or child emotional face stimuli
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Karl J. Friston,John Ashburner,Chris D. Frith,Jean-Baptiste Poline,Jon D. Heather,Richard S. J. Frackowiak +5 more
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Ralph Adolphs,Daniel Tranel,Hanna Damasio,Hanna Damasio,Antonio R. Damasio,Antonio R. Damasio +5 more
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.