title: The effects of skin tone on race-related amygdala activity: an fMRI investigation.
abstract: Previous work has shown differential amygdala response to African-American faces by Caucasian individuals. Furthermore, behavioral studies have demonstrated the existence of skin tone bias, the tendency to prefer light skin to dark skin. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether skin tone bias moderates differential race-related amygdala activity. Eleven White participants viewed photographs of unfamiliar Black and White faces with varied skin tone (light, dark). Replicating past research, greater amygdala activity was observed for Black faces than White faces. Furthermore, dark-skinned targets elicited more amygdala activity than light-skinned targets. However, these results were qualified by a significant interaction between race and skin tone, such that amygdala activity was observed at equivalent levels for light- and dark-skinned Black targets, but dark-skinned White targets elicited greater amygdala activity than light-skinned White targets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA. jronquil@usc.edu
authors.forename: Jaclyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ronquillo
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Denson
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lickel
authors.forename: Zhong-Lin
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Anirvan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nandy
authors.forename: Keith B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Maddox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012880:Skin Pigmentation; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult