Functional magnetic resonance imaging of facial affect recognition in children and adolescents

Objective: To examine further the role of the amygdala in the recognition of facial expression in adolescents. Method: Twelve healthy adolescents were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging technology during a task of facial affect recognition and a visual control task. Results: All subjects demonstrated a significant increase in Signal intensity in the amygdala for the facial expression recognition task. Conclusions: The data are consistent with previous work in healthy adult subjects implicating the amygdala as essential for the recognition of fearful facial expression.