Journal article
Subcortical amygdala pathways enable rapid face processing
MM Garvert, KJ Friston, RJ Dolan, MI Garrido
Neuroimage | ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE | Published : 2014
Abstract
Human faces may signal relevant information and are therefore analysed rapidly and effectively by the brain. However, the precise mechanisms and pathways involved in rapid face processing are unclear. One view posits a role for a subcortical connection between early visual sensory regions and the amygdala, while an alternative account emphasises cortical mediation. To adjudicate between these functional architectures, we recorded magnetoencephalographic (MEG) evoked fields in human subjects to presentation of faces with varying emotional valence. Early brain activity was better explained by dynamic causal models containing a direct subcortical connection to the amygdala irrespective of emoti..
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Awarded by Wellcome Trust
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (4-year PhD studentship to MMG, 097267/Z/11/Z, Programme Grant to KJF, 088130/Z/09/Z, and Senior Investigator Award to RJD, 098362/Z/12/Z) and the Australian Research Council (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award to MIG, DE130101393). The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust (091593/Z/10/Z). We are grateful to David Bradbury and Janice Glensman for help with data collection and to the volunteers for participating in this study. The authors acknowledge the use of the UCL Legion High Performance Computing Facility (Legion@UCL), and associated support services, in the completion of this work.