Impacts of facial identity and type of emotion on responses of amygdala neurons.
The amygdala has been implicated in the processing of emotional expressions. Who makes the emotion and the type of emotion are important in producing appropriate responses. How amygdala neurons are affected by facial identity and type of emotion, however, has not yet been systematically examined. We examined the activity of amygdala neurons using nine monkey stimuli: 3 monkeys x 3 types of emotion. Of the 227 neurons tested, 77 responded to the monkey stimuli. The effects of facial identity and type of emotion on the response magnitude were significant in 48 and 57 neurons, respectively. Both effects were significant in 38 neurons. These results indicate that both facial identity and type of emotion have strong impacts on amygdala functions.
Kuraoka
Koji
K
National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan.
Nakamura
Katsuki
K
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000679:Amygdala / Q000166:cytology*; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods