Effects of Gaze on Amygdala Sensitivity to Anger and Fear Faces

Adams, Reginald B.; Gordon, Heather L.; Baird, Abigail A.; Ambady, Nalini; Kleck, Robert E.

doi:10.1126/science.1082244

Cited by 390 publications

(310 citation statements)

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“…Whereas our results point to a role of the amygdala in the processes observed in the current experiments and are thus principally in support of the view that the amygdala is important for social processing early in development (42)(43)(44), there is no direct evidence for amygdala involvement in our ERP data. Nonetheless, our findings are consistent with accounts that assign a major role to amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuits in the unconscious processing of fear as well as gaze in adults (15,25) and are also in line with developmental models according to which amygdala-prefrontal circuits become functional at around 7 mo of age (43).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Critically, eye gaze and emotion perception have been shown to powerfully interact. For example, fearful eyes elicit stronger behavioral and neural responses when averted from than when directed at an observer (25,26). This presumably relates to the fact that averted fearful eyes inform an observer about a potential danger in the environment (clear threat), whereas directed fearful eyes signal fear of the observer (ambiguous threat).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This presumably relates to the fact that averted fearful eyes inform an observer about a potential danger in the environment (clear threat), whereas directed fearful eyes signal fear of the observer (ambiguous threat). At the brain level, this also relies on the amygdala, as reflected in a differential activation for direct compared with averted gaze (25,27). Furthermore, behavioral studies suggest that similar to emotion processing, eye gaze discrimination operates even in the absence of conscious awareness (28).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unconscious discrimination of social cues from eye whites in infants

Jessen

Großmann

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Human eyes serve two key functions in face-to-face social interactions: they provide cues about a person's emotional state and attentional focus (gaze direction). Both functions critically rely on the morphologically unique human sclera and have been shown to operate even in the absence of conscious awareness in adults. However, it is not known whether the ability to respond to social cues from scleral information without conscious awareness exists early in human ontogeny and can therefore be considered a foundational feature of human social functioning. In the current study, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to show that 7-mo-old infants discriminate between fearful and nonfearful eyes (experiment 1) and between direct and averted gaze (experiment 2), even when presented below the perceptual threshold. These effects were specific to the human sclera and not seen in response to polarityinverted eyes. Our results suggest that early in ontogeny the human brain detects social cues from scleral information even in the absence of conscious awareness. The current findings support the view that the human eye with its prominent sclera serves critical communicative functions during human social interactions.infancy | social perception | human eye | subliminal processing | emotion processing

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unconscious discrimination of social cues from eye whites in infants

Jessen

Großmann

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Adams et al (2003) followed up the idea that the amygdala's response may not only be important for detecting threat, but also interpreting whether the threat is direct or indirect. On the other hand, meeting the direct gaze of someone looking angry is also potentially seriously threatening.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Angry faces with direct gaze and fearful faces with averted gaze are recognized more quickly and accurately than either of the alternatives. Adams et al (2003) hypothesized that the more ambiguous the stimulus, the greater the amygdala response would be. In other words, a longer period of ambiguity implies greater activation of the neural circuits recruited by the facial expression and gaze combination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic influences on the neural basis of social cognition

Skuse

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The neural basis of social cognition has been the subject of intensive research in both human and non-human primates. Exciting, provocative and yet consistent findings are emerging. A major focus of interest is the role of efferent and afferent connectivity between the amygdala and the neocortical brain regions, now believed to be critical for the processing of social and emotional perceptions. One possible component is a subcortical neural pathway, which permits rapid and preconscious processing of potentially threatening stimuli, and it leads from the retina to the superior colliculus, to the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus and then to the amygdala. This pathway is activated by direct eye contact, one of many classes of potential threat, and may be particularly responsive to the 'whites of the eyes'. In humans, autonomic arousal evoked by this stimulus is associated with the activity in specific cortical regions concerned with processing visual information from faces. The integrated functioning of these pathways is modulated by one or more X-linked genes, yet to be identified. The emotional responsiveness of the amygdala, and its associated circuits, to social threat is also influenced by functional polymorphisms in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene. We still do not have a clear account of how specific allelic variation, in candidate genes, increases susceptibility to developmental disorders, such as autism, or psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety or depressive illness. However, the regulation of emotional responsiveness to social cues lies at the heart of the problem, and recent research indicates that we may be nearing a deeper and more comprehensive understanding.

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