The amygdala response to emotional stimuli: A comparison of faces and scenes
The amygdala response to emotional stimuli: A comparison of faces and scenes
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DOI：
10.1006/nimg.2002.1179
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发表时间：
2002-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
Weinberger, DR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hariri, AR;Tessitore, A;Weinberger, DR
作为大脑的中心恐惧处理器，杏仁核启动了一系列关键的生理和行为反应。神经成像研究表明，人类的杏仁核不仅对恐惧和愤怒的面部表情有反应，而且对恐怖和威胁的场景，如袭击、爆炸和肢解也有反应。鉴于面部表情在适应性社会行为中的相对重要性，我们假设人类杏仁核对愤怒和恐惧的面部表情的反应比其他恐惧和威胁的刺激更强烈。12名受试者在接受功能磁共振成像时完成了两项任务：匹配愤怒或恐惧的面部表情，以及匹配来自国际情感图像系统（IAPS）的描绘恐惧或威胁情景的场景。虽然面部表情和IAPS刺激都有杏仁核反应，但直接比较发现，杏仁核对面部表情的反应明显大于IAPS刺激。通过皮肤电导反应测量的自主神经反应对面部表情的反应也更大。这些结果表明，人类杏仁核对情感面部表情的反应比对场景的反应更强烈，在设计对探索杏仁核功能感兴趣的实验范式时，应该考虑到这种偏见。
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.