The Timing of Emotional Discrimination in Human Amygdala and Ventral Visual Cortex

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3278-09.2009
• Publication Date: 2009-11-25T23:18:28Z
• Authors: Dean Sabatinelli; Peter J. Lang; Margaret M. Bradley; Vincent D. Costa; Andreas Keil
• Keywords: Male; Brain Mapping; Time Factors; Adolescent; Emotions; Recognition, Psychology; Neuropsychological Tests; Amygdala; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional Laterality; Temporal Lobe; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Reaction Time; Visual Perception; Humans; Female; Visual Pathways; Photic Stimulation; Visual Cortex

Models of visual emotional perception suggest a reentrant organization of the ventral visual system with the amygdala. Using focused functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans with a sampling rate of 100 ms, here we determine the relative timing of emotional discrimination in amygdala and ventral visual cortical structures during emotional perception. Results show that amygdala and inferotemporal visual cortex differentiate emotional from nonemotional scenes ∼1 s before extrastriate occipital cortex, whereas primary occipital cortex shows consistent activity across all scenes. This pattern of discrimination is consistent with a reentrant organization of emotional perception in visual processing, in which transaction between rostral ventral visual cortex and amygdala originates the identification of emotional relevance.