DIFFERENTIAL ENCODING OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS IN THE PRIMATE AMYGDALA

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心，不一定是研究者所在机构。目的：该项目的主要目标是确定杏仁核的特定功能如何在神经水平上进行。杏仁核的功能之一是从环境刺激中选择具有内在情感价值的刺激，并对它们做出适当的反应，例如，在受到威胁时退缩或战斗。这一过程可能依赖于先天编程和相对不灵活的途径，以确保对具有生存价值的物体和事件做出持久和可靠的反应。与此同时，杏仁核需要更新许多刺激的强化值，这些刺激通过学习和经验获得或失去情感意义。这两种功能都用于社会行为。灵长类社会的复杂性要求人类和猴子对面部表情和其他具有情感意义的信号做出可靠的反应，但也要根据社会背景或个体之间的互动历史来调整反应。这些复杂而多样的功能的神经基础在很大程度上是未知的。该项目的核心假设是，外侧核、基底核和中央杏仁核执行一系列可分离但互补的功能。这项研究的目的是在杏仁核中识别刺激分化、评价和情绪反应启动的神经信号。这些研究将确定杏仁核评估重要刺激的神经机制，并将这一过程的结果传递给控制情绪和社会行为的复杂大脑回路。了解在这个回路的每个层面上进行的神经过程，对于更有效地干预情绪障碍具有相当大的希望。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Objective: The broad goal of the project was to determine how specific functions attributed to the amygdala are carried out at the neural level. One of the functions of the amygdala is to select from the environment stimuli with inherent emotional value and respond to them adequately, e.g., withdraw or fight when threatened. This process might rely on innately programmed and relatively inflexible pathways to ensure enduring and reliable reactions in response to objects and events of survival value. In parallel, the amygdala is required to update the reinforcing value of many stimuli that gain or lose emotional significance through learning and experience. Both functions are used for social behavior. The intricacy of primate societies requires that humans and monkeys respond reliably to facial expressions and other signals with emotional significance but also to adjust responses to social context or to the history of interactions between individuals. The neural basis of these complex and diverse functions are largely unknown. The central hypothesis of the project was that the lateral, basal, and central amygdaloid nuclei carry out a sequence of dissociable but complementary functions. The objective of the proposed studies was to identify in the amygdala the neural signature of stimulus differentiation, evaluation, and the initiation of emotional responses. These studies will determine the neural mechanism by which the amygdala evaluates stimuli of significance and relays the results of this process to a complex brain circuits that control emotional and social behavior. Understanding the neural processes carried out at each level of this circuit holds considerable promise for more effective interventions in emotional disorders.