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Fear, faces, and the human amygdala

Adolphs, Ralph (2008) Fear, faces, and the human amygdala. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 18 (2). pp. 166-172. ISSN 0959-4388. PMCID PMC2580742. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2008.06.006. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:ADOcoin08

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Abstract

The amygdala's historical role in processing stimuli related to threat and fear is being modified to suggest a role that is broader and more abstract. Amygdala lesions impair the ability to seek out and make use of the eye region of faces, resulting in impaired fear perception. Other studies in rats and humans revive earlier proposals that the amygdala is important not only for fear perception as such, but also for detecting saliency and biological relevance. Debates about some features of this processing now suggest that while the amygdala can process fearful facial expressions in the absence of conscious perception, and while there is some degree of preattentive processing, this depends on the context and is not necessarily more rapid than cortical processing routes. A large current research effort extends the amygdala's putative role to a number of psychiatric illnesses.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2008.06.006DOIArticle
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2580742/PubMed CentralArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Adolphs, Ralph0000-0002-8053-9692
Additional Information:© 2008 Elsevier Ltd. Published April 2008. Available online 12th August 2008. This paper was supported by grants from NIMH, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)UNSPECIFIED
Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Simons FoundationUNSPECIFIED
NIHUNSPECIFIED
Subject Keywords:HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISM; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS; SINGLE NEURONS; EMOTION RECOGNITION; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; NEURAL CIRCUITRY; VISUAL CORTICES; 1ST IMPRESSIONS; MONKEY AMYGDALA; RHESUS-MONKEY
Issue or Number:2
PubMed Central ID:PMC2580742
DOI:10.1016/j.conb.2008.06.006
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:ADOcoin08
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:ADOcoin08
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:13162
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By:INVALID USER
Deposited On:02 Feb 2009 22:08
Last Modified:08 Nov 2021 22:35

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