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Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala

Author

Listed:
  • J. S. Morris

    (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology)

  • A. Öhman

    (Section of Psychiatry and Psychology)

  • R. J. Dolan

    (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology
    Royal Free and University College Hospitals School of Medicine)

Abstract

If subjects are shown an angry face as a target visual stimulus for less than forty milliseconds and are then immediately shown an expressionless mask, these subjects report seeing the mask but not the target. However, an aversively conditioned masked target can elicit an emotional response from subjects without being consciously perceived1,2. Here we study the mechanism of this unconsciously mediated emotional learning. We measured neural activity in volunteer subjects who were presented with two angry faces, one of which, through previous classical conditioning, was associated with a burst of white noise. In half of the trials, the subjects' awareness of the angry faces was prevented by backward masking with a neutral face. A significant neural response was elicited in the right, but not left, amygdala to masked presentations of the conditioned angry face. Unmasked presentations of the same face produced enhanced neural activity in the left, but not right, amygdala. Our results indicate that, first, the human amygdala can discriminate between stimuli solely on the basis of their acquired behavioural significance, and second, this response is lateralized according to the subjects' level of awareness of the stimuli.

Suggested Citation

  • J. S. Morris & A. Öhman & R. J. Dolan, 1998. "Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala," Nature, Nature, vol. 393(6684), pages 467-470, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:393:y:1998:i:6684:d:10.1038_30976
    DOI: 10.1038/30976
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Adam Safron, 2019. "Multilevel evolutionary developmental optimization (MEDO): A theoretical framework for understanding preferences and selection dynamics," Papers 1910.13443, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2019.
    2. Gilles Le Garrec, 2007. "Moral sentiments, democracy and redistributive politics: between nature and culture," 2007 Meeting Papers 702, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Xiang Huang & Hao Jiang & Ming Lv, 2023. "Unconscious Processing of Greenery in the Tourism Context: A Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Experiment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Renzo C. Lanfranco & Andrés Canales-Johnson & Hugh Rabagliati & Axel Cleeremans & David Carmel, 2024. "Minimal exposure durations reveal visual processing priorities for different stimulus attributes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Elżbieta A Bajcar & Wacław M Adamczyk & Karolina Wiercioch-Kuzianik & Przemysław Bąbel, 2020. "Nocebo hyperalgesia can be induced by classical conditioning without involvement of expectancy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Heiko C Bergmann & Mark Rijpkema & Guillén Fernández & Roy P C Kessels, 2012. "The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Kathrin Müsch & Andreas K Engel & Till R Schneider, 2012. "On the Blink: The Importance of Target-Distractor Similarity in Eliciting an Attentional Blink with Faces," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-10, July.
    8. Asaad H. Almohammad, 2016. "Toward a Theory of Political Emotion Causation," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, August.
    9. Gilles Le Garrec, 2007. "Moral sentiments, democracy and redistributive politics : between nature and culture," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-00973047, HAL.
    10. Wenli Qian & Qianli Meng & Lin Chen & Ke Zhou, 2012. "Emotional Modulation of the Attentional Blink Is Awareness-Dependent," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-6, September.
    11. Rany Abend & Avi Karni & Avi Sadeh & Nathan A Fox & Daniel S Pine & Yair Bar-Haim, 2013. "Learning to Attend to Threat Accelerates and Enhances Memory Consolidation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-9, April.

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