An amygdala response to fearful faces with covered eyes

Aziz Asghar, Yi-Chieh Chiu, Glyn Hallam, Siwei Liu, Hannah Mole, Hayley Wright, Andrew Young

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Findings of amygdala responsiveness to the eye region of fearful faces raise the question of whether eye widening is the only facial cue involved. We used fMRI to investigate the differential amygdala response to fearful versus neutral stimuli for faces, eyes, and for faces in which the eye region was masked. For maximum sensitivity, a block design was used, with a region of interest (ROI) centred on the amygdala which included peri-amygdalar areas. Evidence of amygdala responsiveness to fear compared to neutral stimuli was found for whole faces, eye region only, and for faces with masked eyes. The amygdala can therefore use information from facial regions other than the eyes, allowing it to respond differentially to fearful compared to neutral faces even when the eye region is hidden.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2364-2370
    JournalNeuropsychologia
    Volume46
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

    Keywords

    • Amygdala
    • Functional magnetic resonance imaging
    • Facial expression

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'An amygdala response to fearful faces with covered eyes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this