The role of human basolateral amygdala in ambiguous social threat perception.

Journal: Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior

Volume: 52

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 2014

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands; Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven University, Belgium. Electronic address: b.degelder@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa. MRC Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract summary 

Previous studies have shown that the amygdala (AMG) plays a role in how affective signals are processed. Animal research has allowed this role to be better understood and has assigned to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) an important role in threat perception. Here we show that, when passively exposed to bodily threat signals during a facial expressions recognition task, humans with bilateral BLA damage but with a functional central-medial amygdala (CMA) have a profound deficit in ignoring task-irrelevant bodily threat signals.

Authors & Co-authors:  de Gelder Beatrice B Terburg David D Morgan Barak B Hortensius Ruud R Stein Dan J DJ van Honk Jack J

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations : 
Authors :  6
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.12.010
SSN : 1973-8102
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Adult
Other Terms
Amygdala;Basolateral amygdala;Body emotion expressions;Emotion;Urbach–Wiethe disease
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
Italy