The Amygdala: Emotional Modulation of Attention

描述（由申请人提供）：越来越多的数据表明，情绪刺激获得优先访问注意力资源。这种效果可以被实例化为改进的检测时间、增强的皮层反应以及对并发或紧接的后续刺激的处理的更大破坏。杏仁核被假设在注意力的情绪引导中起着关键作用。这种影响在焦虑症的几种神经行为模型中表现突出。然而，这一假设的直接证据是非常有限的，很少有人知道的方面的注意力调制的杏仁核的选择性病变的影响。我们实验室的初步数据表明，因顽固性癫痫而接受选择性单侧杏仁核和前海马切除的患者在特定注意力任务中表现出缺陷。这些缺陷包括未能表现出对厌恶情绪图片的注意瞬脱，对情绪刺激的视觉搜索减慢，以及未能表现出在情绪Stroop范式中呈现情绪词语期间的任何表现减慢。本研究旨在阐明杏仁核损伤对注意力的影响。此外，我们建议测试最近的理论，证明左杏仁核和右杏仁核在处理有意识与无意识的刺激和条件与先天的情绪刺激时有差异。为此，我们建议研究38例患者之前和之后，他们接受了单侧（一半右半左）杏仁核campectomies难治性癫痫。我们还将研究38名年龄、性别、利手和教育程度相匹配的对照组，以及38名与杏仁核切除术患者相匹配的非手术癫痫患者的抗惊厥药物使用情况。参与者将接受一系列测试，以确定杏仁核损伤对不同类型情绪刺激的注意力引导的具体影响。这项研究代表了第一个彻底研究选择性杏仁核损伤对不同注意力调节任务的作用的研究。它在情感文献中是独一无二的，因为它在术前和术后都对患者进行了检查，并且能够排除抗惊厥药物的混淆。因此，这项研究将能够以以前对人类杏仁核的研究无法达到的精确度来解决杏仁核损伤的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Increasing data indicate that emotional stimuli gain preferential access to attentional resources. This effect can be instantiated as improved detection time, enhanced cortical responses, and greater disruption of the processing of concurrent or immediately subsequent stimuli. The amygdala has been hypothesized to play a critical role in the emotional guidance of attention. This influence figures prominently in several neuro-behavioral models of anxiety disorders. However, direct evidence for this hypothesis is extremely limited, and little is known regarding the aspects of attentional modulation that are affected by selective lesions of the amygdala. Preliminary data from our laboratory indicate that patients who have undergone selective unilateral removal of the amygdala and anterior hippocampus for intractable epilepsy show deficits in specific attentional tasks. These deficits include a failure to show an attentional blink in response to aversive emotional pictures, a slowed visual search for emotional stimuli, and a failure to show any slowing of performance during presentation of emotional words in the Emotional Stroop paradigm. The present proposal aims to elucidate the specific components of attention that are affected by amygdala lesions in humans. Additionally, we propose to test recent theories that posit that the left and right amygdala are differentially involved in processing conscious vs. unconscious stimuli and conditioned vs. innately emotional stimuli. Towards this end, we propose to study 38 patients before and after they undergo unilateral (half right-half left) amygdalohippocampectomies for intractable epilepsy. We will additionally study 38 age-, gender-, handedness- and education-matched controls, and 38 nonsurgical epilepsy patients who are matched with the amygdalohippocampectomy patients for anticonvulsant usage. Participants will receive a battery of tests to determine the specific effects of amygdala lesions on attentional guidance in response to different types of emotional stimuli. The study represents the first research to thoroughly examine the role of selective amygdala lesions on different tasks of attention modulation. It is unique in the emotion literature in its examination of patients both pre- and post-surgery and its ability to rule out confounds of anticonvulsant medications. Thus, the study will be able to address the effects of amygdala lesions with a degree of precision that has been unattainable in previous research on the human amygdala.