TY - JOUR
T1 - The amygdala response to emotional stimuli
T2 - A comparison of faces and scenes
AU - Hariri, Ahmad R.
AU - Tessitore, Alessandro
AU - Mattay, Venkata S.
AU - Fera, Francesco
AU - Weinberger, Daniel R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank R. E. Blanton, W. R. Perlman, and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful and instructive comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. We also thank Saumitra Das and Sam Lee for technical assistance. This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program.
PY - 2002/9
Y1 - 2002/9
N2 - As a 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.
AB - As a 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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U2 - 10.1006/nimg.2002.1179
DO - 10.1006/nimg.2002.1179
M3 - Article
C2 - 12482086
AN - SCOPUS:0036741356
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 17
SP - 317
EP - 323
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
IS - 1
ER -