Citation

Zhao K, Yan WJ, Chen YH, Zuo XN, Fu X. PLoS One 2013; 8(8): e74096.

Affiliation

State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0074096

PMID

24009767

PMCID

PMC3756978

Abstract

The present study investigates the relationship between inter-individual differences in fearful face recognition and amygdala volume. Thirty normal adults were recruited and each completed two identical facial expression recognition tests offline and two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Linear regression indicated that the left amygdala volume negatively correlated with the accuracy of recognizing fearful facial expressions and positively correlated with the probability of misrecognizing fear as surprise. Further exploratory analyses revealed that this relationship did not exist for any other subcortical or cortical regions. Nor did such a relationship exist between the left amygdala volume and performance recognizing the other five facial expressions. These mind-brain associations highlight the importance of the amygdala in recognizing fearful faces and provide insights regarding inter-individual differences in sensitivity toward fear-relevant stimuli.

Language: en