Amygdala Automaticity in Emotional Processing

Abstract: The question addressed in this paper is whether the human amygdala processes threat‐related stimuli independent of selective attention. This is considered from a functional neuroimaging perspective, describing studies in normal volunteers and patients with brain lesions. The conclusion is that the evidence for such automaticity is strong, indicating that important distinctions exist between emotion and other forms of cognition.

[1]  M. Mesulam.  A cortical network for directed attention and unilateral neglect , 1981, Annals of neurology.

[2]  M Corbetta,et al.  Attentional modulation of neural processing of shape, color, and velocity in humans. , 1990, Science.

[3]  L Weiskrantz,et al.  Disconnected Awareness for Detecting, Processing, and Remembering in Neurological Patients , 1991, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[4]  B. Kapp,et al.  Effects of electrical stimulation of the amygdaloid central nucleus on neocortical arousal in the rabbit. , 1994, Behavioral neuroscience.

[5]  D. Perrett,et al.  A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions , 1996, Nature.

[6]  S. Rauch,et al.  Response and Habituation of the Human Amygdala during Visual Processing of Facial Expression , 1996, Neuron.

[7]  K. Hugdahl,et al.  Peripheral cuing of covert spatial attention before and after emotional conditioning of the cue. , 1996, The International journal of neuroscience.

[8]  T. Robbins,et al.  Neurobehavioural mechanisms of reward and motivation , 1996, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[9]  K. Mogg,et al.  Time course of attentional bias for threat information in non-clinical anxiety. , 1997, Behaviour research and therapy.

[10]  K. Mogg,et al.  Attentional biases for negative information in induced and naturally occurring dysphoria. , 1997, Behaviour research and therapy.

[11]  T. Robbins.  Arousal systems and attentional processes , 1997, Biological Psychology.

[12]  S. Rauch,et al.  Masked Presentations of Emotional Facial Expressions Modulate Amygdala Activity without Explicit Knowledge , 1998, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[13]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A neuromodulatory role for the human amygdala in processing emotional facial expressions. , 1998, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[14]  U. Eysel,et al.  Neural structures associated with recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions , 1998, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[15]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  Covert visual attention modulates face-specific activity in the human fusiform gyrus: fMRI study. , 1998, Journal of neurophysiology.

[16]  R. Dolan,et al.  Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala , 1998, Nature.

[17]  S. Schweinberger,et al.  Asymmetric relationships among perceptions of facial identity, emotion, and facial speech. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[18]  Kenji Kawano,et al.  Global and fine information coded by single neurons in the temporal visual cortex , 1999, Nature.

[19]  R. Maddock.  The retrosplenial cortex and emotion: new insights from functional neuroimaging of the human brain , 1999, Trends in Neurosciences.

[20]  A. Ohman,et al.  Fear appears fast: temporal course of startle reflex potentiation in animal fearful subjects. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[21]  P. Holland,et al.  Amygdala circuitry in attentional and representational processes , 1999, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[22]  M. Sarter,et al.  Cortical cholinergic inputs mediating arousal, attentional processing and dreaming: differential afferent regulation of the basal forebrain by telencephalic and brainstem afferents , 1999, Neuroscience.

[23]  M. Mesulam,et al.  Spatial attention and neglect: parietal, frontal and cingulate contributions to the mental representation and attentional targeting of salient extrapersonal events. , 1999, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[24]  M. Posner,et al.  Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[25]  Jorge L. Armony,et al.  Modulation of auditory neural responses by a visual context in human fear conditioning , 2001, Neuroreport.

[26]  R. Rafal,et al.  Neural fate of seen and unseen faces in visuospatial neglect: A combined event-related functional MRI and event-related potential study , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  L. Weiskrantz,et al.  Differential extrageniculostriate and amygdala responses to presentation of emotional faces in a cortically blind field. , 2001, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  A. Anderson,et al.  Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events , 2001, Nature.

[29]  P. Vuilleumier,et al.  Modulation of visual perception by eye gaze direction in patients with spatial neglect and extinction , 2001, Neuroreport.

[30]  J. Driver,et al.  Perceptual awareness and its loss in unilateral neglect and extinction , 2001, Cognition.

[31]  R. Dolan,et al.  Effects of Attention and Emotion on Face Processing in the Human Brain An Event-Related fMRI Study , 2001, Neuron.

[32]  A. Young,et al.  Neuropsychology of fear and loathing , 2001 .

[33]  J. Eastwood,et al.  Perception without awareness: perspectives from cognitive psychology , 2001, Cognition.