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Automatic relevance detection in the absence of a functional amygdala.

ABSTRACT: The idea that the amygdala is crucially involved in automatically prioritising relevant events rests on evidence from a single lesion study where a patient with bilateral temporal lobe lesions, acquired in adulthood, was impaired in recall facilitation during the attentional blink. Here, in a comparable task, we show that two individuals with selective bilateral amygdala lesions retain facilitated recall of aversive words during the attentional blink. Recall facilitation was statistically significant for both patients and akin to that seen in young students and age- and education-matched controls. This challenges the amygdala's role as a crucial hub in prioritising attention and at a minimum implies that this role can be compensated for when lesions are acquired early in life. Previous findings might be explained by the described fact that lesions were acquired later in life and encompassed areas beyond the amygdala, including visual pathways. We propose that in the absence of a functioning amygdala, prioritised visual processing may rely on alternative structures such as pulvinar and cortical visual areas.

SUBMITTER: Bach DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3083511 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Automatic relevance detection in the absence of a functional amygdala.

Bach Dominik R DR Talmi Deborah D Hurlemann René R Patin Alexandra A Dolan Raymond J RJ

Neuropsychologia 20110221 5

The idea that the amygdala is crucially involved in automatically prioritising relevant events rests on evidence from a single lesion study where a patient with bilateral temporal lobe lesions, acquired in adulthood, was impaired in recall facilitation during the attentional blink. Here, in a comparable task, we show that two individuals with selective bilateral amygdala lesions retain facilitated recall of aversive words during the attentional blink. Recall facilitation was statistically signif ...[more]

PMID: 21345345

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Project description:ObjectiveThe authors created normative growth charts of amygdala functional connectivity in typically developing youths, assessed age-associated deviations of these trajectories in youths with psychosis spectrum disorders, and explored how these disruptions are related to clinical symptomatology.MethodsResting-state functional neuroimaging data from four samples (three cross-sectional, one longitudinal) were collected for 1,062 participants 10-25 years of age (622 typically developing control youths, 194 youths with psychosis spectrum disorders, and 246 youths with other psychopathology). The authors assessed deviations in the psychosis spectrum and other psychopathology groups in age-related changes in resting-state functional MRI amygdala-to-whole brain connectivity from a normative range derived from the control youths. The authors explored relationships between age-associated deviations in amygdala connectivity and positive symptoms in the psychosis spectrum group.ResultsNormative trajectories demonstrated significant age-related decreases in centromedial amygdala connectivity with distinct regions of the brain. In contrast, the psychosis spectrum group failed to exhibit any significant age-associated changes between the centromedial amygdala and the prefrontal cortices, striatum, occipital cortex, and thalamus (all q values <0.1). Age-associated deviations in centromedial amygdala-striatum and centromedial amygdala-occipital connectivity were unique to the psychosis spectrum group and were not observed in the other psychopathology group. Exploratory analyses revealed that greater age-related deviation in centromedial amygdala-thalamus connectivity was significantly associated with increased severity of positive symptoms (r=0.19; q=0.05) in the psychosis spectrum group.ConclusionsUsing neurodevelopmental growth charts to identify a lack of normative development of amygdala connectivity in youths with psychosis spectrum disorders may help us better understand the neural basis of affective impairments in psychosis, informing prediction models and interventions.

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Dataset Information

Automatic relevance detection in the absence of a functional amygdala.

Publications

Automatic relevance detection in the absence of a functional amygdala.

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