Is the human amygdala specialized for processing social information?
A number of studies in humans and other animals has confirmed the amygdala's role in modulating cognition and behavior on the basis of a stimulus' motivational, emotional, and social attributes. This raises the question of how these attributes are related: is social information processing reducible to motivational processing? Some recent data suggest the possibility that the amygdala's primitive function may be motivational processing that is domain-general, but that its function in primates, and especially humans, may have evolved to process social information specifically. While the issue is unresolved, future experiments could provide additional support.
Adolphs
Ralph
R
Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. ralph-adolphs@uiowa.edu
D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011323:Primates; D012919:Social Behavior; D013045:Species Specificity