The (Non)Automaticity of Amygdala Responses to Threat: On the Issue of Fast Signals and Slow Measures

Brosch, Tobias; Wieser, Matthias J.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.4089-11.2011

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This is a serious limitation when studying emotions, as nonconscious emotional processing takes place within milliseconds after stimulus onset in subcortical brain areas, including the amygdala and structures related to reflex-like motor reactions, and is followed shortly after by later responses engaged in more deliberate responses and in conscious vision (Borgomaneri, Gazzola, & Avenanti 2014;Borgomaneri, Vitale, Gazzola, & Avenanti, 2015;Garrido, Barnes, Sahani, & Dolan, 2012;Garvert, Friston, Dolan, & Garrido, 2014;Luo, Holroyd, Jones, Hendler, & Blair, 2007;Maior, Hori, Tomaz, Ono, & Nishijo, 2010;Nguyen et al, 2014). Because both early nonconscious and later conscious responses take place within the time window of a single volume acquisition in fMRI studies, the different functional values of neural activity in the same structure may be integrated or overridden (Brosch & Wieser, 2011;Costa et al, 2014;Luo et al, 2010).…”

Section: Methodological Issues In the Study Of Affective Blindsightmentioning

confidence: 99%

From affective blindsight to emotional consciousness

Celeghin

Gelder

Tamietto

2015

Consciousness and Cognition

111

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a b s t r a c tFollowing destruction or denervation of the primary visual cortex (V1) cortical blindness ensues. Affective blindsight refers to the uncanny ability of such patients to respond correctly, or above chance level, to visual emotional expressions presented to their blind fields. Fifteen years after its original discovery, affective blindsight still fascinates neuroscientists and philosophers alike, as it offers a unique window on the vestigial properties of our visual system that, though present in the intact brain, tend to be unnoticed or even actively inhibited by conscious processes. Here we review available studies on affective blindsight with the intent to clarify its functional properties, neural bases and theoretical implications. Evidence converges on the role of subcortical structures of old evolutionary origin such as the superior colliculus, the pulvinar and the amygdala in mediating affective blindsight and nonconscious perception of emotions. We conclude that approaching consciousness, and its absence, from the vantage point of emotion processing may uncover important relations between the two phenomena, as consciousness may have evolved as an evolutionary specialization to interact with others and become aware of their social and emotional expressions.

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Section: Methodological Issues In the Study Of Affective Blindsightmentioning

confidence: 99%

From affective blindsight to emotional consciousness

Celeghin

Gelder

Tamietto

2015

Consciousness and Cognition

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As timing of effects remains a crucial question surrounding amygdala functionality (cf. Brosch & Wieser, 2011), employing neuroimaging measures with high temporal precision would be indispensable. Two such measures, recognized for their superior temporal resolution, are EEG and MEG.…”

Section: Limitations Of Conventional Neuroimaging Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future research would thus benefit from c o r t e x 6 0 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 0 e3 3 manipulating cognitive load when averting attention away from affective stimuli. Additional research on the role of the amygdala in multimodal emotional attention (see Brosch, Grandjean, Sander, & Scherer, 2008) would also be important.…”

Section: Affective Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contemporary neuroscience literature illustrates the human amygdala to significantly contribute to the perception and memory consolidation of affectively relevant stimuli (Bechara et al, 1995;Brosch & Wieser, 2011;Cunningham & Brosch, 2012;Davis & Whalen, 2001;Holland & Gallagher, 1999;LeDoux, 2000;Sander, Grafman, & Zalla, 2003). However, the exact computational profile of the amygdala in affective processing is still a matter of debate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The functional profile of the human amygdala in affective processing: Insights from intracranial recordings

Murray

Brosch

Sander

2014

Cortex

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t r a c tThe amygdala is suggested to serve as a key structure in the emotional brain, implicated in diverse affective processes. Still, the bulk of existing neuroscientific investigations of the amygdala relies on conventional neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI, which are very useful but subject to limitations. These limitations are particular to their temporal resolution, but also to their spatial precision at a very fine-grained level. Here, we review studies investigating the functional profile of the human amygdala using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), an invasive technique with high temporal and spatial precision. We conducted a systematic literature review of 47 iEEG studies investigating the human amygdala, and we focus on two content-related domains and one process-related domain: (1) memory formation and retrieval; (2) affective processing; and (3) latency components. This review reveals the human amygdala to engage in invariant semantic encoding and recognition of specific objects and individuals, independent of context or visuospatial attributes, and to discriminate between familiar and novel stimuli. The review highlights the amygdala's role in emotion processing witnessed in differential treatment of social-affective facial cues, differential neuronal firing to relevant novel stimuli, and habituation to familiar affective stimuli. Overall, the review suggests the amygdala plays a key role in the processing of affective relevance. Finally, this review delineates effects on amygdala neuronal activity into three time latency windows (post-stimulus onset). The early window (~50e290 msec) subsumes effects respective to exogenous stimulus-driven affective processing of faces and emotion. The intermediate window (~270e470 msec) comprises effects related to explicit attention to novel task-relevant stimuli, irrespective of sensory modality. The late window (~600e1400 msec) subsumes effects from tasks soliciting semantic associations and working memory during affective processing. We juxtapose these iEEG data with current clinical topics relevant to amygdala activation and propose avenues for future investigation of the amygdala using iEEG methods.© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.* Corresponding author. Campus Biotech, CISA e University of Geneva, Case Postale 60, CH e 1211 Gen eve 20, Switzerland. E-mail address: ryan.murray@unige.ch (R.J. Murray).Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirectJournal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex c o r t e x 6 0 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 0 e3 3 http://dx

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“…Intracranial electrodes have recorded rapid amygdala responses to emotional stimuli 2 (around 140 ms after stimulus onset; Pourtois, Spinelli, Seeck, & Vuilleumier, 2010) even when the stimuli were not task relevant and not in the focus of attention. Nevertheless, the automaticity of the amygdala response remains a debated issue (see Brosch & Wieser, 2011, for a brief review).…”

Section: Concern Relevancementioning

confidence: 99%

Comment: The Appraising Brain: Towards a Neuro-Cognitive Model of Appraisal Processes in Emotion

Brosch

Sander

2013

Emotion Review

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Appraisal theories have described elaborate mechanisms underlying the elicitation of emotion at the psychological-cognitive level, but typically do not integrate neuroscientific concepts and findings. At the same time, theoretical developments in appraisal theory have been pretty much ignored by researchers studying the neuroscience of emotion. We feel that a stronger integration of these two literatures would be highly profitable for both sides. Here we outline a blueprint of the "appraising brain." To this end, we review neuroimaging research investigating the processing of major appraisal variables, and sketch a neuro-cognitive process model of appraisal with a special emphasis on the chronometry and the recursive aspect of emotional evaluation. We hope that this contribution will stimulate more hypothesis-driven research on the neuroscience of appraisal.

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The (Non)Automaticity of Amygdala Responses to Threat: On the Issue of Fast Signals and Slow Measures

Cited by 18 publications

References 9 publications

From affective blindsight to emotional consciousness

From affective blindsight to emotional consciousness

The functional profile of the human amygdala in affective processing: Insights from intracranial recordings

Comment: The Appraising Brain: Towards a Neuro-Cognitive Model of Appraisal Processes in Emotion

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