title: An amygdala response to fearful faces with covered eyes.
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.
authors.affiliation: Hull York Medical School & Department of Biological Sciences, University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. aziz.asghar@hyms.ac.uk
authors.forename: Aziz U R
authors.initials: AU
authors.lastname: Asghar
authors.forename: Yi-Chieh
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Glyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hallam
authors.forename: Siwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mole
authors.forename: Hayley
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D005123:Eye; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009055:Mouth; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology