Discriminating emotional faces without primary visual cortices involves the right amygdala

Alan J. Pegna; Asaid Khateb; Francois Lazeyras; Mohamed L. Seghier

doi:10.1038/nn1364

Discriminating emotional faces without primary visual cortices involves the right amygdala

Alan J. Pegna, Asaid Khateb, Francois Lazeyras, Mohamed L. Seghier

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Destruction of the brain's primary visual areas leads to blindness of cortical origin. Here we report on a subject who, after bilateral destruction of his visual cortices and ensuing cortical blindness, could nevertheless correctly guess the type of emotional facial expression being displayed, but could not guess other types of emotional or non-emotional stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed activation of the right amygdala during the unconscious processing of emotionally expressive faces.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	24-25
Number of pages	2
Journal	Nature Neuroscience
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1364
State	Published - Jan 2005
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank F. Bernasconi and E. Monbaron for providing us with the patient’s neuropsychological examination, R. Rafal and P. Vuilleumier for helpful comments on the manuscript and J. Intriligator for methodological assistance. This investigation was supported by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research (grants 3100-056782/99, 3151AO-102271/1 and 3200BO-100717/1).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Neuroscience

Access to Document

10.1038/nn1364

Cite this

@article{b96b5a99174f42e3aa4a7922b64d1ed2,

title = "Discriminating emotional faces without primary visual cortices involves the right amygdala",

abstract = "Destruction of the brain's primary visual areas leads to blindness of cortical origin. Here we report on a subject who, after bilateral destruction of his visual cortices and ensuing cortical blindness, could nevertheless correctly guess the type of emotional facial expression being displayed, but could not guess other types of emotional or non-emotional stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed activation of the right amygdala during the unconscious processing of emotionally expressive faces.",

author = "Pegna, {Alan J.} and Asaid Khateb and Francois Lazeyras and Seghier, {Mohamed L.}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank F. Bernasconi and E. Monbaron for providing us with the patient{\textquoteright}s neuropsychological examination, R. Rafal and P. Vuilleumier for helpful comments on the manuscript and J. Intriligator for methodological assistance. This investigation was supported by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research (grants 3100-056782/99, 3151AO-102271/1 and 3200BO-100717/1).",

year = "2005",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1038/nn1364",

language = "English",

volume = "8",

pages = "24--25",

journal = "Nature Neuroscience",

issn = "1097-6256",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Discriminating emotional faces without primary visual cortices involves the right amygdala

AU - Pegna, Alan J.

AU - Khateb, Asaid

AU - Lazeyras, Francois

AU - Seghier, Mohamed L.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank F. Bernasconi and E. Monbaron for providing us with the patient’s neuropsychological examination, R. Rafal and P. Vuilleumier for helpful comments on the manuscript and J. Intriligator for methodological assistance. This investigation was supported by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research (grants 3100-056782/99, 3151AO-102271/1 and 3200BO-100717/1).

PY - 2005/1

Y1 - 2005/1

N2 - Destruction of the brain's primary visual areas leads to blindness of cortical origin. Here we report on a subject who, after bilateral destruction of his visual cortices and ensuing cortical blindness, could nevertheless correctly guess the type of emotional facial expression being displayed, but could not guess other types of emotional or non-emotional stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed activation of the right amygdala during the unconscious processing of emotionally expressive faces.

AB - Destruction of the brain's primary visual areas leads to blindness of cortical origin. Here we report on a subject who, after bilateral destruction of his visual cortices and ensuing cortical blindness, could nevertheless correctly guess the type of emotional facial expression being displayed, but could not guess other types of emotional or non-emotional stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed activation of the right amygdala during the unconscious processing of emotionally expressive faces.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=16344389854&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nn1364

DO - 10.1038/nn1364

M3 - Article

C2 - 15592466

AN - SCOPUS:16344389854

SN - 1097-6256

VL - 8

SP - 24

EP - 25

JO - Nature Neuroscience

JF - Nature Neuroscience

IS - 1

ER -

Discriminating emotional faces without primary visual cortices involves the right amygdala

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this