Open AccessThe volatility of the amygdala response to masked fearful eyes
Author(s) -
Straube Thomas,
Dietrich Caroline,
MothesLasch Martin,
Mentzel HansJoachim,
Miltner Wolfgang H.R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.20960
Subject(s) - amygdala , psychology , masking (illustration) , functional magnetic resonance imaging , backward masking , neuroscience , context (archaeology) , audiology , cognitive psychology , medicine , perception , biology , art , paleontology , visual arts
Recently, it has been suggested that backwardly masked, and thus subliminally presented, fearful eyes are processed by the amygdala. Here, we investigated in four functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments whether the amygdala responds to subliminally presented fearful eyes per se or whether an interaction of masked eyes with the masks or with parts of the masks used for backward masking might be responsible for the amygdala activation. In these experiments, we varied the mask as well as the position of the target eyes. The results show that the amygdala does not respond to masked fearful eyes per se but to an interaction between masked fearful eyes and the eyes of neutral faces used for masking. This finding questions the hypothesis that the amygdala processes context‐free parts of the human face without awareness. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.