The human amygdala is sensitive to the valence of pictures and sounds irrespective of arousal: An fMRI study

Silke Anders*, Falk Eippert, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Ralf Veit

*Corresponding author for this work
    59 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    With the advent of studies showing that amygdala responses are not limited to fear-related or highly unpleasant stimuli, studies began to focus on stimulus valence and stimulus-related arousal as predictors of amygdala activity. Recent studies in the chemosensory domain found amygdala activity to increase with the intensity of negative and positive chemosensory stimuli. This has led to the proposal that amygdala activity might be an indicator of emotional arousal, at least in the chemosensory domain. The present study investigated amygdala activity in response to visual and auditory stimuli. By selecting stimuli based on individual valence and arousal ratings, we were able to dissociate stimulus valence and stimulus-related arousal, both on the verbal and the peripheral physiological level. We found that the amygdala was sensitive to stimulus valence even when arousal was controlled for, and that increased amygdala activity was better explained by valence than by arousal. The proposed difference in the relation between amygdala activity and stimulus-related arousal between the chemosensory and the audiovisual domain is discussed in terms of the amygdala's embedding within these sensory systems and the processes by which emotional meaning is derived.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
    Volume3
    Issue number3
    Pages (from-to)233-243
    Number of pages11
    ISSN1749-5016
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 26.09.2008

    Research Areas and Centers

    • Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)

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