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A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage

Author

Listed:
  • Ralph Adolphs

    (University of Iowa
    California Institute of Technology)

  • Frederic Gosselin

    (Université de Montréal)

  • Tony W. Buchanan

    (University of Iowa)

  • Daniel Tranel

    (University of Iowa)

  • Philippe Schyns

    (University of Glasgow)

  • Antonio R. Damasio

    (University of Iowa)

Abstract

The look of fear We continuously look at people's faces to judge how they feel: happy, sad, angry or afraid? A region of the brain called the amygdala is needed to make such judgements, and a new study shows how. A rare subject with bilateral amygdala damage was impaired in her ability to make use of information from the eye region in the face. This resulted in a severe impairment in her ability to recognize fear. Strikingly, when she was instructed to look at other people's eyes, her recognition of fear became normal. This suggests that our brains actively seek out important social cues in the environment, and that impairments in this mechanism in diseases such as autism might be overcome by instructing patients to change the way they look at the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralph Adolphs & Frederic Gosselin & Tony W. Buchanan & Daniel Tranel & Philippe Schyns & Antonio R. Damasio, 2005. "A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage," Nature, Nature, vol. 433(7021), pages 68-72, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:433:y:2005:i:7021:d:10.1038_nature03086
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03086
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    Cited by:

    1. Ilicic, Jasmina & Baxter, Stacey M. & Kulczynski, Alicia, 2016. "White eyes are the window to the pure soul: Metaphorical association and overgeneralization effects for spokespeople with limbal rings," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 840-855.
    2. Yung-Hao Yang & Su-Ling Yeh, 2018. "Can emotional content be extracted under interocular suppression?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Tina T. Liu & Jason Z Fu & Yuhui Chai & Shruti Japee & Gang Chen & Leslie G. Ungerleider & Elisha P. Merriam, 2022. "Layer-specific, retinotopically-diffuse modulation in human visual cortex in response to viewing emotionally expressive faces," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Feng Zhou & Weihua Zhao & Ziyu Qi & Yayuan Geng & Shuxia Yao & Keith M. Kendrick & Tor D. Wager & Benjamin Becker, 2021. "A distributed fMRI-based signature for the subjective experience of fear," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Yao Song & Yan Luximon, 2019. "Design for Sustainability: The Effect of Lettering Case on Environmental Concern from a Green Advertising Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Martin Wegrzyn & Maria Vogt & Berna Kireclioglu & Julia Schneider & Johanna Kissler, 2017. "Mapping the emotional face. How individual face parts contribute to successful emotion recognition," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, May.

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