Fear-enhanced visual search persists after amygdala lesions.

ABSTRACT: Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional modulation of attention. However, a recent case study suggests that the amygdala may not be essential for all types of emotion-attention interactions. In order to test this hypothesis, we assessed the visual-search performance of patients with unilateral amygdala lesions, matched controls, and medication-matched epilepsy patients with intact amygdalae. All participants completed a visual-search task consisting of trials in which (1) an emotional target was embedded among neutral distractors, (2) a neutral target was embedded among emotional distractors, or (3) a neutral target was embedded among neutral distractors. All participant groups, including those with amygdala lesions, detected emotio

SUBMITTER: Piech RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2949448 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature