Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention
Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.172403899
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发表时间：
2002-08-20
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Ungerleider, LG
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pessoa, L;McKenna, M;Ungerleider, LG
在视觉皮质中，注意力对刺激的处理相对较早。然而，现有的数据表明，情绪刺激会自动激活大脑区域，在很大程度上不受注意力控制。为了解决这个问题，我们首先使用功能磁共振成像来测量与中性面孔相比，对情绪表达(恐惧和快乐)有不同反应的区域的激活情况。然后，我们测量了注意力对这些反应的调制，使用了一项具有高注意力负荷的竞争性任务。与流行的观点相反，所有对情绪面孔做出不同反应的大脑区域，包括杏仁核，只有在有足够的注意力资源可用于处理面孔时才会这样做。因此，面部表情的处理似乎受到自上而下的控制。
Attention gates the processing of stimuli relatively early in visual cortex. Yet, existing data suggest that emotional stimuli activate brain regions automatically, largely immune from attentional control. To resolve this puzzle, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to first measure activation in regions that responded differentially to faces with emotional expressions (fearful and happy) compared with neutral faces. We then measured the modulation of these responses by attention, using a competing task with a high attentional load. Contrary to the prevailing view, all brain regions responding differentially to emotional faces, including the amygdala, did so only when sufficient attentional resources were available to process the faces. Thus, the processing of facial expression appears to be under top-down control.