It has been reported that bilateral amygdala damage in humans compromises the recognition of fear and anger in nonverbal vocalizations (Scott et al., 1997). We addressed the possibility that unilateral temporal lobe damage might be sufficient to impair fear recognition in voices. For this purpose, we tested patients after left (n=10) or right (n=8) medial temporal lobe resection for the relief of intractable epilepsy using a set of nonverbal vocalizations (Belin, Fillion-Bilodeau, & Gosselin, 2008). To focus more narrowly on the role of amygdala subparts, we differentiated patients with complete amygdala damage vs. damage limited to the basolateral complex of the amygdala. The results confirmed for the first time that unilateral amygdala lesion including the basolateral complex can selectively impair recognition of fear and surprise expressed by voices, supporting the notion that the amygdala is a multimodal structure. Interestingly, this impairment was observed in patients with incomplete resection of the amygdala that spared the central nucleus and the corticomedial complex, suggesting that a resection of the basolateral complex is sufficient to affect fear recognition. Given that fear has often been considered as a precursor of anxiety, we also investigated the effect of such lesions on self-reported anxiety. The same patients appeared to be less anxious than control participants in their mood questionnaires. The association of impaired fear perception and decreased anxiety level is considered in the light of recent human and animal data, providing support for a neurobiological basis of mood changes in patients with unilateral temporal lobe damage.
Pubmed ID: 21108955 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
BrainVISA is a modular an customizable software platform built to host heterogeneous tools dedicated to neuroimaging research. Many toolboxes have already been developed for BrainVISA (T1 MRI, sulcal identification and morphometry, cortical surface analysis, diffusion imaging and tractography, fMRI, nuclear imaging, EEG and MEG, TMS, histology and autoradiography, etc.). Anatomist is a software for interactive visualization of multimodal data and for manipulation of structured 3D objects. It allows to build scenes that merge or combine images, meshes, regions of interest, fibers, textures, color palettes, referential changes, etc. A user can interact in 3D and in real time with the objects of an Anatomist scene: change point of view, select objects, add/suppress objects, change colors, draw regions of interests, do manual registration, etc. BrainVISA main features are: * Harmonization of communications between different software. For instance, BrainVISA toolboxes are using home-made software but also third-party software such as FreeSurfer, FSL, SPM, nipy, R-project, Matlab, etc. * Ontology-based data organization allowing database sharing and automation of mass of data analysis. * Fusion and interactive visualization of multimodal data (using Anatomist software). * Automatic generation of graphical user interfaces. * Workflow monitoring and data quality checking. * Full customization possible. * Runs on Linux, Mac and Windows. * Programming Language: C++, Python * Supported Data Format: ANALYZE, DICOM, GIfTI, MINC, NIfTI-1, Other Format
View all literature mentions