Zhao Yanbing, Sun Qing, Chen Gang, Yang Jiongjiong
a School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health , Peking University , Beijing , China.
b Scientific and Statistical Computing Core , National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health , Bethesda , MD , USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2018 Feb;13(1):117-128. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1267040. Epub 2016 Dec 10.
Previous studies have shown that the amygdala is more involved in processing animate categories, such as humans and animals, than inanimate objects, but little is known regarding whether this animate advantage applies to auditory stimuli. To address this issue, we performed a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study with emotion and category as factors, in which subjects heard sounds from different categories (i.e., humans, animals, and objects) in negative and neutral dimensions. Emotional levels and semantic familiarity were matched across categories. The results showed that the amygdala responded more to human vocalization than to animal vocalization and sounds of inanimate objects in both negative and neutral valences, and more to animal sounds than to objects in neural condition. In addition, the amygdala, together with the insula and the right superior temporal sulcus, further distinguished human voices from animal sounds. These data indicated that the amygdala is prepared to respond to animate sources, especially human vocalizations in auditory modality.
先前的研究表明，杏仁核在处理诸如人类和动物等有生命类别时比处理无生命物体时参与度更高，但对于这种有生命优势是否适用于听觉刺激却知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，我们进行了一项功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，将情感和类别作为因素，让受试者在消极和中性维度下听来自不同类别的声音（即人类、动物和物体）。各类别间的情感水平和语义熟悉度相匹配。结果显示，在消极和中性效价中，杏仁核对人类发声的反应比对动物发声和无生命物体声音的反应更强烈，在中性条件下对动物声音的反应比对物体声音的反应更强烈。此外，杏仁核与脑岛及右侧颞上沟一起，进一步区分了人类声音和动物声音。这些数据表明，杏仁核随时准备对有生命来源做出反应，尤其是在听觉模态下的人类发声。
