Characteristics
of the Involvement of the Amygdala in the Recognition of Emotional
Expressions: A Review of Neuropsychological Research
W. Sato & T. Murai |
In
this article, we review existing empirical research into the effects
of damage to the amygdala on the recognition of facial, bodily and
vocal emotional expressions. The evidence indicates that amygdala
damage impairs the recognition of emotional expressions, Based on
these neuropsychological data, together with anatomical, physiological,
neuroimaging and psychological data, we propose that the characteristics
of the involvement of the amygdala in the recognition of emotional
expressions in normal brain are as follows: (1) The amygdala is involved
in the recognition of emotional expressions irrespective of the stimulus
type or the sensory modality; (2) The amygdala is necessary not only
for the acquisition of emotional knowledge during development but
also for online recognition processes in adults; (3) The amygdala
is involved particularly in the recognition of negative emotional
expressions, although the specific emotional categories in which
the amygdala is involved differ among stimuli and subjects, i.e.,
the amygdala is not necessarily involved only in recognizing fear;
(4) The amygdala inhibits the tendency to misrecognize negative emotional
expressions as being positive. Key words: emotional expression recognition, amygdala, neuropsychology |