A category-specific response to animals in the right human amygdala

Florian Mormann*, Julien Dubois, Simon Kornblith, Milica Milosavljevic, Moran Cerf, Matias Ison, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Alexander Kraskov, Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, Ralph Adolphs, Itzhak Fried, Christof Koch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

128 Scopus citations

Abstract

The amygdala is important in emotion, but it remains unknown whether it is specialized for certain stimulus categories. We analyzed responses recorded from 489 single neurons in the amygdalae of 41 neurosurgical patients and found a categorical selectivity for pictures of animals in the right amygdala. This selectivity appeared to be independent of emotional valence or arousal and may reflect the importance that animals held throughout our evolutionary past.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1247-1249
Number of pages3
JournalNature neuroscience
Volume14
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience(all)

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