Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention

被引：912

作者：

Pessoa, L ^{[1
]}

McKenna, M ^{[1
]}

Gutierrez, E ^{[1
]}

Ungerleider, LG ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] NIMH, Lab Brain & Cognit, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA

来源：

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | 2002年 / 99卷 / 17期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1073/pnas.172403899

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Attention gates the processing of stimuli relatively early in visual cortex. Yet, existing data suggest that emotional stimuli activate brain regions automatically, largely immune from attentional control. To resolve this puzzle, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to first measure activation in regions that responded differentially to faces with emotional expressions (fearful and happy) compared with neutral faces. We then measured the modulation of these responses by attention, using a competing task with a high attentional load. Contrary to the prevailing view, all brain regions responding differentially to emotional faces, including the amygdala, did so only when sufficient attentional resources were available to process the faces. Thus, the processing of facial expression appears to be under top-down control.

引用

页码：11458 / 11463

页数：6

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