School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4068, Australia.
Unit for Presurgical Evaluation of Epilepsy, Neurology Clinic, Geneva University Hospitals, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 11;11(1):426. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80054-1.
Facial expressions of emotions have been shown to modulate early ERP components, in particular the N170. The underlying anatomical structure producing these early effects are unclear. In this study, we examined the N170 enhancement for fearful expressions in healthy controls as well as epileptic patients after unilateral left or right amygdala resection. We observed a greater N170 for fearful faces in healthy participants as well as in individuals with left amygdala resections. By contrast, the effect was not observed in patients who had undergone surgery in which the right amygdala had been removed. This result demonstrates that the amygdala produces an early brain response to fearful faces. This early response relies specifically on the right amygdala and occurs at around 170 ms. It is likely that such increases are due to a heightened response of the extrastriate cortex that occurs through rapid amygdalofugal projections to the visual areas.
情绪的面部表情已被证明可以调节早期 ERP 成分，特别是 N170。产生这些早期效应的潜在解剖结构尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们检查了健康对照组以及单侧左或右杏仁核切除术后癫痫患者对恐惧表情的 N170 增强。我们观察到健康参与者和左侧杏仁核切除术后的个体对恐惧面孔的 N170 更大。相比之下，在接受右侧杏仁核切除手术的患者中未观察到该效应。这一结果表明杏仁核会对恐惧面孔产生早期的大脑反应。这种早期反应特别依赖于右侧杏仁核，发生在大约 170 毫秒左右。这种增加可能是由于外纹状体的反应增强，这是通过快速杏仁核传出投射到视觉区域引起的。
