A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions
A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/383812a0
复制
发表时间：
1996-10-31
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Dolan, RJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Morris, JS;Frith, CD;Dolan, RJ
杏仁核被认为在情感和社会行为中起着至关重要的作用（1）。动物研究表明，杏仁核与恐惧条件反射（2）和面部感知（3）有关。在人类中，杏仁核的损伤可导致识别恐惧面部表情的选择性缺陷（4，5）和受损的恐惧条件反射（6，7），直接电刺激引起恐惧的情绪反应（8）。在这里，我们报告了人类杏仁核对恐惧和快乐的面部表情的不同神经反应的直接体内证据，当受试者观看恐惧或快乐面孔的照片时，获得了神经活动的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）测量，情绪强度系统地变化，左杏仁核中的神经元反应显着大于恐惧而不是快乐的表情，此外，这种反应显示出与情绪强度的显著相互作用（随着恐惧的增加而增加，随着幸福的增加而减少）。这些发现提供了直接的证据，证明人类的杏仁核参与处理面部表情的情绪显着性，并对恐惧的面部表情做出特异性反应。
THE amygdala is thought to play a crucial role in emotional and social behaviour(1). Animal studies implicate the amygdala in both fear conditioning(2) and face perception(3). In humans, lesions of the amygdala can lead to selective deficits in the recognition of fearful facial expressions(4,5) and impaired fear conditioning(6,7), and direct electrical stimulation evokes fearful emotional responses(8). Here we report direct in vivo evidence of a differential neural response in the human amygdala to facial expressions of fear and happiness, Positron-emission tomography (PET) measures of neural activity were acquired while subjects viewed photographs of fearful or happy faces, varying systematically in emotional intensity, The neuronal response in the left amygdala was significantly greater to fearful as opposed to happy expressions, Furthermore, this response showed a significant interaction with the intensity of emotion (increasing with increasing fearfulness, decreasing with increasing happiness). The findings provide direct evidence that the human amygdala is engaged in processing the emotional salience of faces, with a specificity of response to fearful facial expressions.