Unilateral amygdala lesions hamper attentional orienting triggered by gaze direction
Unilateral amygdala lesions hamper attentional orienting triggered by gaze direction
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DOI：
10.1093/cercor/bhl166
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发表时间：
2007-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Kashima, Haruo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Akiyama, Tomoko;Kato, Motoichiro;Kashima, Haruo
新发现的双侧杏仁核损伤病例中的缺陷，即不能将注意力分配到面部的关键特征上（Adolphs R，Gosselin F，Buchanan TW，Tranel D，Schyns P，Damasio AR。2005.杏仁核损伤后恐惧识别受损的机制。自然433：68-72.），为研究杏仁核的功能打开了一扇新的窗户这种情况意味着杏仁核可能在检测潜在的相关社会刺激，并相应地引导注意力方面至关重要。在本研究中，我们试图通过调查5个单侧杏仁核损伤的受试者在空间线索任务中的行为表现来验证这一结论。任务采用中心注视和箭头方向作为线索，触发注意定向在周边目标检测。虽然年龄匹配的正常对照组表现出显着的一致性效应，使目标一致提示方向引起更快的检测，杏仁核受试者表现出没有这样的一致性效应的凝视线索在面对一个显着的一致性效应的箭头线索。结果表明，刺激的社会效价是至关重要的杏仁核参与视觉处理。研究结果也支持杏仁核在检测和分析相关的社会刺激，并相应地定向注意力的牵连作用。
The newly discovered deficit in a bilateral amygdala-damaged case, of not being able to allocate attention to the critical feature of a face (Adolphs R, Gosselin F, Buchanan TW, Tranel D, Schyns P, Damasio AR. 2005. A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage. Nature. 433:68-72.), has opened a new window into the function of the amygdala. This case implies that the amygdala might be essential in detecting potentially relevant social stimuli, and directing attention accordingly. In this study, we have sought to test this implication by investigating the behavioral performance of 5 unilateral amygdala-damaged subjects on spatial cueing tasks. The tasks employed central gaze and arrow direction as cues to trigger attentional orienting in peripheral target detection. Although age-matched normal controls demonstrated a significant congruency effect such that targets presented congruently to cue direction elicited faster detection, amygdala subjects demonstrated no such congruency effect for gaze cues in the face of a significant congruency effect for arrow cues. The results suggest that the social valence of a stimulus is critical for amygdala involvement in visual processing. The results also support the implicated role of the amygdala in detecting and analyzing relevant social stimuli, and orienting attention accordingly.