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Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events

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  • Adam K. Anderson

    (Yale University
    Stanford University)

  • Elizabeth A. Phelps

    (New York University)

Abstract

Commensurate with the importance of rapidly and efficiently evaluating motivationally significant stimuli, humans are probably endowed with distinct faculties1,2 and maintain specialized neural structures to enhance their detection. Here we consider that a critical function of the human amygdala3,4 is to enhance the perception of stimuli that have emotional significance. Under conditions of limited attention for normal perceptual awareness—that is, the attentional blink5,6—we show that healthy observers demonstrate robust benefits for the perception of verbal stimuli of aversive content compared with stimuli of neutral content. In contrast, a patient with bilateral amygdala damage has no enhanced perception for such aversive stimulus events. Examination of patients with either left or right amygdala resections shows that the enhanced perception of aversive words depends specifically on the left amygdala. All patients comprehend normally the affective meaning of the stimulus events, despite the lack of evidence for enhanced perceptual encoding of these events in patients with left amygdala lesions. Our results reveal a neural substrate for affective influences on perception, indicating that similar neural mechanisms may underlie the affective modulation of both recollective7,8,9 and perceptual experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam K. Anderson & Elizabeth A. Phelps, 2001. "Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events," Nature, Nature, vol. 411(6835), pages 305-309, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:411:y:2001:i:6835:d:10.1038_35077083
    DOI: 10.1038/35077083
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    Cited by:

    1. Camilla J Croucher & Andrew J Calder & Cristina Ramponi & Philip J Barnard & Fionnuala C Murphy, 2011. "Disgust Enhances the Recollection of Negative Emotional Images," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-8, November.
    2. Heiko C Bergmann & Mark Rijpkema & Guillén Fernández & Roy P C Kessels, 2012. "The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Kathrin Müsch & Andreas K Engel & Till R Schneider, 2012. "On the Blink: The Importance of Target-Distractor Similarity in Eliciting an Attentional Blink with Faces," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-10, July.
    4. Vera Ferrari & Serena Mastria & Nicola Bruno, 2014. "Crossmodal Interactions during Affective Picture Processing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-6, February.
    5. Wenli Qian & Qianli Meng & Lin Chen & Ke Zhou, 2012. "Emotional Modulation of the Attentional Blink Is Awareness-Dependent," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-6, September.
    6. Jennifer C. Whitman & Jiaying Zhao & Kevin H. Roberts & Rebecca M. Todd, 2018. "Political orientation and climate concern shape visual attention to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 383-394, April.

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