Emotion and the brain: multiple roads are better than one

Abstract

We have recently provided a critical evaluation of the idea that a subcortical pathway through the superior colliculus and pulvinar to the amygdala has a prominent and privileged role in processing affective visual stimuli (Emotion processing and the amygdala: from a 'low road' to 'many roads' of evaluating biological significance. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 11, 773–783 (2010)). In so doing, one of our goals was to encourage a careful re-evaluation of the purported subcortical pathway. We therefore welcome the correspondence by de Gelder and colleagues (Emotion and the brain: of low roads, high roads, and of royal roads less traveled. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 15 June 2011 (doi:10.1038/nrn2920-c1), in which they argue for the importance of this subcortical pathway. As we have already addressed at length the points that they raise in our original paper, we will focus on three overarching issues.

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