Functional connectivity between amygdala and facial regions involved in recognition of facial threat

Miyahara, Motohide; Harada, Tokiko; Ruffman, Ted; Sadato, Norihiro; Iidaka, Tetsuya

doi:10.1093/scan/nsr085

Cited by 25 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Whereas the brain stem is assumed as part of an alert system that rapidly detects subliminal cues of threat and initiates adequate motoric responses, such as fight/flight behavior (Liddell et al, 2005), functional connectivity between the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus shows associations with perceived threat from facial expressions (Miyahara et al, 2013). Our findings therefore suggest that oxytocin may reduce social threat perception from the eye region under conditions of limited awareness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Oxytocin Attenuates Neural Reactivity to Masked Threat Cues from the Eyes

Kanat

Heinrichs

Schwarzwald

et al. 2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

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The neuropeptide oxytocin has recently been shown to modulate covert attention shifts to emotional face cues and to improve discrimination of masked facial emotions. These results suggest that oxytocin modulates facial emotion processing at early perceptual stages prior to full evaluation of the emotional expression. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine whether oxytocin alters neural responses to backwardly masked angry and happy faces while controlling for attention to the eye vs the mouth region. Intranasal oxytocin administration reduced amygdala reactivity to masked emotions when attending to salient facial features, ie, the eyes of angry faces and the mouth of happy faces. In addition, oxytocin decreased neural responses within the fusiform gyrus and brain stem areas, as well as functional coupling between the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus specifically for threat cues from the eyes. Effects of oxytocin on brain activity were not attributable to differences in behavioral performance, as oxytocin had no impact on mere emotion detection. Our results suggest that oxytocin attenuates neural correlates of early arousal by threat signals from the eye region. As reduced threat sensitivity may increase the likelihood of engaging in social interactions, our findings may have important implications for clinical states of social anxiety.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Oxytocin Attenuates Neural Reactivity to Masked Threat Cues from the Eyes

Kanat

Heinrichs

Schwarzwald

et al. 2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…98,99 The FFA also receives “back projections” from brain regions implicated in affective processing, which are thought to bias responding towards emotionally salient or arousing facial expressions. 100,10136 Thus, among the girls in our sample with LOC eating, heightened engagement of FFA may reflect a bias towards processing negative feedback from high-value peers. This bias, which emerged during only the most threatening of social encounters (negative feedback from high-value peers), also was positively associated with consumption during the test meal in those with LOC eating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Neural activation during anticipated peer evaluation and laboratory meal intake in overweight girls with and without loss of control eating

et al. 2015

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The interpersonal model of loss of control (LOC) eating proposes that socially distressing situations lead to anxious states that trigger excessive food consumption. Self-reports support these links, but the neurobiological underpinnings of these relationships remain unclear. We therefore examined brain regions associated with anxiety in relation to LOC eating and energy intake in the laboratory. Twenty-two overweight and obese (BMIz: 1.9±0.4) adolescent (15.8±1.6y) girls with LOC eating (LOC+, n=10) and without LOC eating (LOC−, n=12) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a simulated peer interaction chatroom paradigm. Immediately after the fMRI scan, girls consumed lunch ad libitum from a 10,934-kcal laboratory buffet meal with the instruction to “let yourself go and eat as much as you want.” Pre-specified hypotheses regarding activation of five regions of interest were tested. Analysis of fMRI data revealed a significant group by peer feedback interaction in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), such that LOC+ had less activity following peer rejection (vs. acceptance), while LOC− had increased activity (p <.005). Moreover, functional coupling between vmPFC and striatum for peer rejection (vs. acceptance) interacted with LOC status: coupling was positive for LOC+, but negative in LOC− (p <.005). Activity of fusiform face area (FFA) during negative peer feedback from high-value peers also interacted with LOC status (p < .005). A positive association between FFA activation and intake during the meal was observed among only those with LOC eating. In conclusion, overweight and obese girls with LOC eating may be distinguished by a failure to engage regions of prefrontal cortex implicated in emotion regulation in response to social distress. The relationship between FFA activation and food intake supports the notion that heightened sensitivity to incoming interpersonal cues and perturbations in socio-emotional neural circuits may lead to overeating in order to cope with negative affect elicited by social discomfort in susceptible youth.

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“…However, the neuropathology underlying this impairment is unclear. A network of brain regions critical for facial affect recognition have been identified) and include the prefrontal cortex (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex), limbic structures (i.e., amygdala, temporal lobes and fusiform gyrus, and regions of the parietal lobe) (Adolphs, 2010;Miyahara, Harada, Ruffman, Sadato, & Iidaka, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial affect recognition linked to damage in specific white matter tracts in traumatic brain injury

Genova

Rajagopalan

Chiaravalloti

et al. 2014

Social Neuroscience

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Emotional processing deficits have recently been identified in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), specifically in the domain of facial affect recognition. However, the neural networks underlying these impairments have yet to be identified. In the current study, 42 individuals with moderate to severe TBI and 23 healthy controls performed a task of facial affect recognition (Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT)) in order to assess their ability to identify and discriminate six emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, shame, and fear. These individuals also underwent structural neuroimaging including diffusion tensor imaging to examine white matter (WM) integrity. Correlational analyses were performed to determine where in the brain WM damage was associated with performance on the facial affect recognition task. Reduced performance on the FEIT was associated with reduced WM integrity (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity) in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus in individuals with TBI. Poor performance on the task was additionally associated with reduced gray matter (GM) volume in lingual gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus. The results implicate a pattern of WM and GM damage in TBI that may play a role in emotional processing impairments.

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Functional connectivity between amygdala and facial regions involved in recognition of facial threat

Cited by 25 publications

References 41 publications

Oxytocin Attenuates Neural Reactivity to Masked Threat Cues from the Eyes

Oxytocin Attenuates Neural Reactivity to Masked Threat Cues from the Eyes

Neural activation during anticipated peer evaluation and laboratory meal intake in overweight girls with and without loss of control eating

Facial affect recognition linked to damage in specific white matter tracts in traumatic brain injury

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