Threat sensitivity as assessed by automatic amygdala response to fearful faces predicts speed of visual search for facial expression.

@article{citeulike:1434468, abstract = {It has been argued that the amygdala represents an integral component of a vigilance system that is primarily involved in the perception of ambiguous stimuli of biological relevance. The present investigation was conducted to examine the relationship between automatic amygdala responsivity to fearful faces which may be interpreted as an index of trait-like threat sensitivity and spatial processing characteristics of facial emotions. During 3T fMRI scanning, pictures of human faces bearing fearful, angry, and happy expressions were presented to 20 healthy volunteers using a backward masking procedure based on neutral facial expressions. Subsequently, a computer-based face-in-the-crowd task using schematic face stimuli was administered. The neural response of the (right) amygdala to masked fearful faces correlated consistently with response speed to negative and neutral faces. Neither amygdala activation during the masked presentation of angry faces nor amygdala activation during the presentation of happy faces was correlated with any of the response latencies in the face-in-the-crowd task. Our results suggest that amygdala responsivity to masked facial expression is differentially related to the general visual search speed for facial expression. Neurobiologically defined threat sensitivity seems to represent an important determinant of visual scanning behaviour.}, address = {Department of Psychiatry, University of M\"{u}nster, Albert-Schweitzer-Street 11, 48149, Muenster, Germany, ohrmann@uni-muenster.de.}, author = {Ohrmann, Patricia and Rauch, Astrid V. and Bauer, Jochen and Kugel, Harald and Arolt, Volker and Heindel, Walter and Suslow, Thomas }, citeulike-article-id = {1434468}, doi = {10.1007/s00221-007-1022-0}, issn = {0014-4819}, journal = {Exp Brain Res}, keywords = {amygdala, attention, expression, face, visual\_search}, month = {July}, posted-at = {2007-07-05 03:47:31}, priority = {4}, title = {Threat sensitivity as assessed by automatic amygdala response to fearful faces predicts speed of visual search for facial expression.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-007-1022-0}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1434468 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1434468 TI - Threat sensitivity as assessed by automatic amygdala response to fearful faces predicts speed of visual search for facial expression. JF - Exp Brain Res AD - Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Street 11, 48149, Muenster, Germany, ohrmann@uni-muenster.de. SN - 0014-4819 N2 - It has been argued that the amygdala represents an integral component of a vigilance system that is primarily involved in the perception of ambiguous stimuli of biological relevance. The present investigation was conducted to examine the relationship between automatic amygdala responsivity to fearful faces which may be interpreted as an index of trait-like threat sensitivity and spatial processing characteristics of facial emotions. During 3T fMRI scanning, pictures of human faces bearing fearful, angry, and happy expressions were presented to 20 healthy volunteers using a backward masking procedure based on neutral facial expressions. Subsequently, a computer-based face-in-the-crowd task using schematic face stimuli was administered. The neural response of the (right) amygdala to masked fearful faces correlated consistently with response speed to negative and neutral faces. Neither amygdala activation during the masked presentation of angry faces nor amygdala activation during the presentation of happy faces was correlated with any of the response latencies in the face-in-the-crowd task. Our results suggest that amygdala responsivity to masked facial expression is differentially related to the general visual search speed for facial expression. Neurobiologically defined threat sensitivity seems to represent an important determinant of visual scanning behaviour. KW - amygdala KW - attention KW - expression KW - face KW - visual_search AU - Ohrmann, Patricia AU - Rauch, Astrid AU - Bauer, Jochen AU - Kugel, Harald AU - Arolt, Volker AU - Heindel, Walter AU - Suslow, Thomas PY - 2007/07/03/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-007-1022-0 ER -