title: Hypervigilance for fear after basolateral amygdala damage in humans.
abstract: Recent rodent research has shown that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) inhibits unconditioned, or innate, fear. It is, however, unknown whether the BLA acts in similar ways in humans. In a group of five subjects with a rare genetic syndrome, that is, Urbach-Wiethe disease (UWD), we used a combination of structural and functional neuroimaging, and established focal, bilateral BLA damage, while other amygdala sub-regions are functionally intact. We tested the translational hypothesis that these BLA-damaged UWD-subjects are hypervigilant to facial expressions of fear, which are prototypical innate threat cues in humans. Our data indeed repeatedly confirm fear hypervigilance in these UWD subjects. They show hypervigilant responses to unconsciously presented fearful faces in a modified Stroop task. They attend longer to the eyes of dynamically displayed fearful faces in an eye-tracked emotion recognition task, and in that task recognize facial fear significantly better than control subjects. These findings provide the first direct evidence in humans in support of an inhibitory function of the BLA on the brain's threat vigilance system, which has important implications for the understanding of the amygdala's role in the disorders of fear and anxiety.
authors: Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. d.terburg@uu.nl
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Terburg
authors: B E
authors: BE
authors: Morgan
authors: E R
authors: ER
authors: Montoya
authors: I T
authors: IT
authors: Hooge
authors: H B
authors: HB
authors: Thornton
authors: A R
authors: AR
authors: Hariri
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Panksepp
authors: D J
authors: DJ
authors: Stein
authors: J
authors: J
authors: van Honk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001288:Attention; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008065:Lipoid Proteinosis of Urbach and Wiethe / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D057190:Stroop Test; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation
chemical_list: C522217:CDNF protein, human; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors