The Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli: A Comparison of Faces and Scenes

doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1179

NeuroImage

Volume 17, Issue 1, September 2002, Pages 317-323

https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1179 Get rights and content

Abstract

Asa central fear processor of the brain, the amygdala initiates a cascade of critical physiological and behavioral responses. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the human amygdala responds not only to fearful and angry facial expressions but also to fearful and threatening scenes such as attacks, explosions, and mutilations. Given the relative importance of facial expressions in adaptive social behavior, we hypothesized that the human amygdala would exhibit a stronger response to angry and fearful facial expressions in comparison to other fearful and threatening stimuli. Twelve subjects completed two tasks while undergoing fMRI: matching angry or fearful facial expressions, and matching scenes depicting fearful or threatening situations derived from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). While there was an amygdala response to both facial expressions and IAPS stimuli, direct comparison revealed that the amygdala response to facial expressions was significantly greater than that to IAPS stimuli. Autonomic reactivity, measured by skin conductance responses, was also greater to facial expressions. These results suggest that the human amygdala shows a stronger response to affective facial expressions than to scenes, a bias that should be considered in the design of experimental paradigms interested in probing amygdala function.

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Regular ArticleThe Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli: A Comparison of Faces and Scenes

Abstract

Hemispheric perception of emotional valence from facial expressions

Neuropsychology

Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human amygdala

Nature

Fear and the human amygdala

J. Neurosci.

Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events

Nature

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

The amygdala: Vigilance and emotion

Mol. Psychiatry

Pictures of Facial Affect

Single neuron activity in human hippocampus and amygdala during recognition of faces and objects

Neuron

Characterizing dynamic brain responses with fMRI: A multivariate approach

NeuroImage

A double dissociation in the affective modulation of startle in humans: Effects of unilateral temporal lobectomy

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Finding the face in the crowd: An anger superiority effect

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

Modulating emotional responses: Effects of a neocortical network on the limbic system

NeuroReport

Dextroamphetamine modulates the response of the human amygdala

Neuropsychopharmacology

Functional activation of the left amygdala and hippocampus during associative encoding

NeuroReport

Regular Article
The Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli: A Comparison of Faces and Scenes