title: Amygdala processing of social cues from faces: an intracrebral EEG study.
abstract: The amygdala is a key structure for monitoring the relevance of environmental stimuli. Yet, little is known about the dynamics of its response to primary social cues such as gaze and emotion. Here, we examined evoked amygdala responses to gaze and facial emotion changes in five epileptic patients with intracerebral electrodes. Patients first viewed a neutral face that would then convey social cues: it turned either happy or fearful with or without gaze aversion. This social cue was followed by a laterally presented target, the detection of which was faster if it appeared in a location congruent with the averted gaze direction. First, we observed pronounced evoked amygdala potentials to the initial neutral face. Second, analysis of the evoked responses to the cue showed an early effect of gaze starting at 123 ms in the right amygdala. Differential effects of fearful vs happy valence were individually present but more variable in time and therefore not observed at group-level. Our study is the first to demonstrate such an early effect of gaze in the amygdala, in line with its particular behavioral relevance in the spatial attention task.
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Neuropsychology Laboratory: Audition, Cognition, Action (PSITEC Laboratory - EA 4072), Université Lille-Nord de France, Lille.
authors.forename: Josefien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huijgen
authors.affiliation: Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, AP-HP, Groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Epilepsy Unit, Paris, France, v.dinkelacker@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dinkelacker
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, Brain & Mind Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Computational Science (BECS) Aalto University School of Science, Finland, and.
authors.forename: Fanny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lachat
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, ENS, Centre MEG-EEG, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yahia-Cherif
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris.
authors.forename: Imen
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: El Karoui
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, ENS, Centre MEG-EEG, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Didier
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lemaréchal
authors.affiliation: Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, AP-HP, Groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Epilepsy Unit, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, ENS, Centre MEG-EEG, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hugueville
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Centre MEG-EEG and UMR_S 1127, Paris, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, PICNIC Laboratory, and Centre MEG-EEG, F-75013, Paris, CNRS, UMR 7225, Paris, Inserm, U 1127, Paris, ENS, Centre MEG-EEG, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: George
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D000069280:Electrocorticography / Q000379:methods*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: amygdala; emotion; facial expression; gaze; intracranial EEG