Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2005-1-3
pubmed:abstractText
Facial expressions of emotion elicit increased activity in the human amygdala. Such increases are particularly evident for expressions that convey potential threat to the observer, and arise even when the face is masked from awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether the amygdala responds differentially to threatening (fearful) versus nonthreatening (happy) facial expressions depending on whether the face is attended or actively ignored. In separate runs, participants were cued to attend to a face or a house within semitransparent, spatially overlaid composite pairs, presented either side of fixation, and were required to perform a demanding same/different judgment. We found significant attentional modulation of activity in category-specific 'face' (fusiform gyrus) and 'place' (parahippocampal gyrus) regions, with activity in each area increasing selectively when its preferred stimulus was attended versus ignored. In contrast, activity in the amygdala differed according to the valence of the facial expression and the category of the attended stimulus. For happy faces, activity in the amygdala was greater in the attend-face than in the attend-house condition, whereas for fearful faces, activity was greater in the attend-house than in the attend-face condition. We conclude that differential amygdala responses to fearful versus happy facial expressions are tuned by mechanisms of attention and that the amygdala gives preference to potentially threatening stimuli under conditions of inattention.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jan
pubmed:issn
1053-8119
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
15
pubmed:volume
24
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
417-25
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2005
pubmed:articleTitle
Differential amygdala responses to happy and fearful facial expressions depend on selective attention.
pubmed:affiliation
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Behavioural Science, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't