A left amygdala mediated network for rapid orienting to masked fearful faces

Abstract

A rapid response to environmental threat is highly adaptive and fearful facial expressions serve as important threat cues. The biological significance of these threat cues is demonstrated by neuroimaging findings of amygdala responses to backward masked fearful faces. Additionally, behavioral dot-probe studies reveal that backward masked fearful faces modulate spatial attention. However, little is known about the behavioral impact of the amygdala sensitivity to masked fearful faces. Using a dot-probe task with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we provide the first evidence that the amygdala is involved in orienting to backward masked fearful faces. Furthermore, this spatial attention-related amygdala response was correlated with activity in the anterior cingulate, superior temporal sulcus, and lingual gyrus.