title: Amygdala responsivity to high-level social information from unseen faces.
abstract: Previous research shows that the amygdala automatically responds to a face's trustworthiness when a face is clearly visible. However, it is unclear whether the amygdala could evaluate such high-level facial information without a face being consciously perceived. Using a backward masking paradigm, we demonstrate in two functional neuroimaging experiments that the human amygdala is sensitive to subliminal variation in facial trustworthiness. Regions in the amygdala tracked how untrustworthy a face appeared (i.e., negative-linear responses) as well as the overall strength of a face's trustworthiness signal (i.e., nonlinear responses), despite faces not being subjectively seen. This tracking was robust across blocked and event-related designs and both real and computer-generated faces. The findings demonstrate that the amygdala can be influenced by even high-level facial information before that information is consciously perceived, suggesting that the amygdala's processing of social cues in the absence of awareness may be more extensive than previously described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and jon.freeman@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and.
authors.forename: Ryan M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Stolier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Zachary A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Ingbretsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, and.
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Hehman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: amygdala; backward masking; fMRI; face; social cues
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