Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany; Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany; Biopsychology, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
Institute for Systems Medicine and Department of Human Medicine, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany.
Prog Neurobiol. 2022 Jul;214:102283. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102283. Epub 2022 May 6.
The amygdala is a core structure in the neuronal network underlying emotion processing in the vertebrate brain. Its structure and function have been extensively studied in both neuroimaging studies in human volunteers and comparative studies in animal models. Across different studies and research questions regarding the amygdala, one often-encountered finding is that the left and the right amygdala are not equivalent in terms of function and structure. Hemispheric asymmetries in the amygdala have been reported on many different levels, yet a systematic integration of these findings has been missing from the literature. Researchers in both cognitive and clinical neurosciences are often puzzled why they find a specific effect or association for the left but not the right amygdala, or vice versa. In this review article, we provide an integrated overview of existing basic and clinical findings regarding amygdala asymmetries in structure, connections, and functions. Importantly, the literature suggests that functional amygdala lateralization is determined by temporal characteristics, emotional valence, and perceptual properties. Furthermore, we highlight alterations of amygdala asymmetries reported in different patient groups, thereby allowing for a deeper understanding of atypical amygdala asymmetries. Lastly, we aim to provide guidelines and approaches concerning the interpretation of results for researchers investigating amygdala asymmetries.
杏仁核是脊椎动物大脑中情感处理的神经元网络的核心结构。它的结构和功能已经在人类志愿者的神经影像学研究和动物模型的比较研究中得到了广泛的研究。在涉及杏仁核的不同研究和研究问题中，一个经常遇到的发现是，左杏仁核和右杏仁核在功能和结构上并不等同。杏仁核的半球不对称性在许多不同的层面上都有报道，但这些发现的系统整合在文献中缺失了。认知和临床神经科学的研究人员经常感到困惑，为什么他们会发现左杏仁核而不是右杏仁核有特定的影响或关联，或者反之亦然。在这篇综述文章中，我们提供了一个关于杏仁核结构、连接和功能不对称的现有基础和临床研究的综合概述。重要的是，文献表明，功能杏仁核的偏侧化是由时间特征、情绪效价和感知特性决定的。此外，我们还强调了不同患者群体中报道的杏仁核不对称性的改变，从而能够更深入地了解非典型的杏仁核不对称性。最后，我们旨在为研究杏仁核不对称性的研究人员提供有关解释结果的指导方针和方法。
