Skuse D H, Morris J S, Dolan R J
Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
Brain. 2005 Sep;128(Pt 9):2084-96. doi: 10.1093/brain/awh562. Epub 2005 Jun 9.
The amygdala is preferentially activated by facial expressions of fear. Right and left amygdala are hypothesized to play distinct, but complementary, roles that influence somatic and cognitive responses to facial expressions. Right amygdala activation is linked to autonomic arousal, and thus indirectly influences left hemisphere cognitive processing centres. Left amygdala activation is more closely associated with cognitive processing and differentiation of facial emotions. A double-dissociation between the functions of left and right amygdala is implied by lesion studies but supportive evidence is inconsistent, partly because patients with structural anteromedial temporal anomalies have experienced variable surgical procedures. A functional dissociation can be demonstrated between arousal and the cognitive appraisal of fearful faces in the condition of X-monosomy or Turner syndrome. Previous research found Turner syndrome women of normal verbal intelligence are seriously impaired in their ability cognitively to differentiate fearful from other facial expressions but they acquire fear conditioning normally, with enhanced autonomic responses. These findings supported the dissociation hypothesis, which was formally tested in a study of 12 X-monosomic and 12 control females who participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging during which simultaneous skin conductance recordings were acquired. Faces depicting fear or neutral emotions were presented to both case and control subjects in random order. Arousal to (fearful-neutral) faces was associated with transiently increased skin conductance responses and bilateral amygdala activation in both groups, but X-monosomic females had proportionately greater--and more persistent--right amygdala activation than controls. In both groups, cognitive accuracy correlated positively with differential activity of left fusiform gyrus. There was a significant correlation between the left fusiform and left medial amygdala activation only in normal females, and only in them did differential SCRs (to fearful-neutral faces) correlate positively with left fusiform responses. Arousal and cognitive appraisal functions of the amygdala can thus be functionally dissociated. X-monosomy selectively impairs explicit recognition of fearful faces in the presence of normal or enhanced autonomic reactivity, and is associated with a functional dissociation of activity in left amygdala and left fusiform gyrus. These findings imply X-linked genes are essential for binding somatic responses to the cognitive appraisal of emotional stimuli.
杏仁核优先被恐惧的面部表情激活。左右杏仁核被假设发挥不同但互补的作用,这些作用会影响对面部表情的躯体和认知反应。右侧杏仁核的激活与自主唤醒相关,从而间接影响左半球认知加工中心。左侧杏仁核的激活与面部情绪的认知加工和区分更密切相关。损伤研究暗示了左右杏仁核功能之间的双重分离,但支持性证据并不一致,部分原因是患有结构性前内侧颞叶异常的患者经历了不同的手术程序。在X单体性或特纳综合征的情况下,可以证明在唤醒和对恐惧面孔的认知评估之间存在功能分离。先前的研究发现,语言智力正常的特纳综合征女性在认知上区分恐惧面孔与其他面部表情的能力严重受损,但她们正常获得恐惧条件反射,且自主反应增强。这些发现支持了分离假说,该假说在一项对12名X单体性女性和12名对照女性的研究中得到了正式检验,这些女性参与了功能磁共振成像,在此期间同时记录了皮肤电传导。描绘恐惧或中性情绪的面孔以随机顺序呈现给病例组和对照组受试者。两组对(恐惧-中性)面孔的唤醒都与皮肤电传导反应短暂增加以及双侧杏仁核激活相关,但X单体性女性的右侧杏仁核激活比对照组更大且更持久。在两组中,认知准确性与左侧梭状回差异活动呈正相关。仅在正常女性中,左侧梭状回和左侧内侧杏仁核激活之间存在显著相关性,并且只有她们的差异皮肤电反应(对恐惧-中性面孔)与左侧梭状回反应呈正相关。因此,杏仁核的唤醒和认知评估功能在功能上可以分离。X单体性在自主反应正常或增强的情况下选择性损害对恐惧面孔的明确识别,并与左侧杏仁核和左侧梭状回活动的功能分离相关。这些发现意味着X连锁基因对于将躯体反应与情绪刺激的认知评估联系起来至关重要。