Specific amygdala response to masked fearful faces in post-traumatic stress relative to other anxiety disorders
Abstract
Background: Altered amygdala activation to fear-related stimuli has been proposed to be a potential neural correlate of heightened threat sensitivity in anxiety- and stress-related disorders. However, the role of stimulus awareness and disorder specificity remains widely unclear. Here we investigated amygdala responses to conscious and unconscious fearful faces in patients suffering from panic disorder (PD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in a large sample of healthy controls (HC). Methods: During event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging participants (n = 120; 20 PD, 20 GAD, 20 PTSD, 60 HC) were confronted with briefly presented fearful faces, neutral faces, and non-faces in a backward masking paradigm. The design allowed for the analysis of trial-by-trial face detection performance and amygdala responses to fearful v. neutral faces. Results: All participants exhibited increased amygdala activation to fearful v. neutral faces during conscious trials. Specifically during unconscious face processing, the PTSD, compared with all other groups, showed higher right basolateral (BLA) amygdala activity to fearful v. neutral faces. Conclusions: The present study shows that BLA amygdala hyperactivity during unconscious, but not conscious, processing of fearful faces differentiates PTSD from the investigated disorders. This finding suggests an automatic and specific neural hyper-responsivity to general fear cues in PTSD and supports the idea of categorical differences between PTSD and other anxiety-related disorders.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In response to stressful stimuli such as fearful faces, patients with PTSD showed higher activation of the basolateral amygdala during unconscious face processing compared to healthy controls and patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
“Further, in response to stressful stimuli as fearful faces, patients with PTSD showed a higher activation of the basolateral amygdala during unconscious face processing compared to healthy controls as well as patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (159).”
From Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders (2018) · cites this paper as [159]
Cites
The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory
Oldfield, R. C. (1971) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(71)90067-4 · Cited by 35,900 · see citing works
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593 · Cited by 20,391 · see citing works
Tzourio-Mazoyer, N., Landeau, B., Papathanassiou, D., Crivello, F., Etard, O., Delcroix, N., Mazoyer, B., & Joliot, M. (2002) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0978 · Cited by 16,319 · see citing works
(1966) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 10,293 · see citing works
Signal detection theory and psychophysics
Ingleby, D. (1967) · Journal of Sound and Vibration · doi:10.1016/0022-460x(67)90197-6 · Cited by 8,616 · see citing works
Maldjian, J., Laurienti, P., Kraft, R., & Burdette, J. (2003) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00169-1 · Cited by 5,453 · see citing works
Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6 · Cited by 5,099 · see citing works
Talairach, J., Tournoux, P., & Rayport, M. (1988) · Thieme eBooks · Cited by 5,058 · see citing works
A new SPM toolbox for combining probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps and functional imaging data
Eickhoff, S. B., Stephan, K. E., Mohlberg, H., Grefkes, C., Fink, G. R., Amunts, K., & Zilles, K. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.12.034 · Cited by 4,033 · see citing works
Etkin, A., & Wager, T. D. (2007) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07030504 · Cited by 3,391 · see citing works
Contributions of the Amygdala to Emotion Processing: From Animal Models to Human Behavior
Phelps, E. A., & LeDoux, J. E. (2005) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.09.025 · Cited by 3,203 · see citing works
Foa, E. B., Cashman, L., Jaycox, L., & Perry, K. (1997) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.9.4.445 · Cited by 2,709 · see citing works
Presentation and validation of the Radboud Faces Database
Langner, O., Dotsch, R., Bijlstra, G., Wigboldus, D. H. J., Hawk, S. T., & van Knippenberg, A. (2010) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699930903485076 · Cited by 2,431 · see citing works
From circuits to behaviour in the amygdala
Janak, P. H., & Tye, K. M. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature14188 · Cited by 2,011 · see citing works
Pessoa, L., & Adolphs, R. (2010) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2920 · Cited by 1,794 · see citing works
Bias between MNI and Talairach coordinates analyzed using the ICBM‐152 brain template
Lancaster, J. L., Tordesillas‐Gutiérrez, D., Martinez, M., Salinas, F., Evans, A., Zilles, K., Mazziotta, J. C., & Fox, P. T. (2007) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20345 · Cited by 1,464 · see citing works
Type I and Type II error concerns in fMRI research: re-balancing the scale
Lieberman, M. D., & Cunningham, W. A. (2009) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsp052 · Cited by 1,342 · see citing works
Fusar‐Poli, P., Placentino, A., Carletti, F., Landi, P., Allen, P., Surguladze, S., Benedetti, F., Abbamonte, M., Gasparotti, R., Barale, F., et al. (2009) · Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience · doi:10.1139/jpn.0953 · Cited by 1,292 · see citing works
Amunts, K., Kedo, O., Kindler, M., Pieperhoff, P., Mohlberg, H., Shah, N. J., Habel, U., Schneider, F., & Zilles, K. (2005) · Anatomy and Embryology · doi:10.1007/s00429-005-0025-5 · Cited by 1,264 · see citing works
Ebner, N. C., Riediger, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2010) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/brm.42.1.351 · Cited by 1,262 · see citing works
The role of the amygdala in human fear: automatic detection of threat
Öhman, A. (2005) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.03.019 · Cited by 691 · see citing works
Etkin, A., Klemenhagen, K. C., Dudman, J. T., Rogan, M. T., Hen, R., Kandel, E. R., & Joy Hirsch, C. (2004) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.006 · Cited by 679 · see citing works
Patel, R., Spreng, R. N., Shin, L. M., & Girard, T. A. (2012) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.06.003 · Cited by 546 · see citing works
A fast pathway for fear in human amygdala
Méndez‐Bértolo, C., Moratti, S., Toledano, R., López-Sosa, F., Martínez-Alvarez, R., Mah, Y., Vuilleumier, P. O., Gil‐Nagel, A., & Strange, B. A. (2016) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.4324 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Target Visibility and Visual Awareness Modulate Amygdala Responses to Fearful Faces
Pessoa, L., JAPEE, S. A., Sturman, D. A., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2005) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi115 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Neural circuits in anxiety and stress disorders: a focused review
Liberzon, I., Duval, E. R., & Javanbakht, A. (2015) · Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management · doi:10.2147/tcrm.s48528 · Cited by 262 · see citing works
Bryant, R. A., Kemp, A. H., Felmingham, K. L., Liddell, B. J., Olivieri, G., Peduto, A. J., Gordon, E., & Williams, L. M. (2007) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20415 · Cited by 251 · see citing works
Fonzo, G. A., Simmons, A. N., Thorp, S. R., Norman, S. B., Paulus, M. P., & Stein, M. B. (2010) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.04.028 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Amygdala Activation Predicts Gaze toward Fearful Eyes
Gamer, M., & Buchel, C. (2009) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1883-09.2009 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Ball, T., Rahm, B., Eickhoff, S. B., Schulze-Bonhage, A., Speck, O., & Mutschler, I. (2007) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000307 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Fonzo, G. A., Ramsawh, H. J., Flagan, T. M., Sullivan, S. G., Letamendi, A., Simmons, A. N., Paulus, M. P., & Stein, M. B. (2015) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.114.149880 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Induction and Expression of Fear Sensitization Caused by Acute Traumatic Stress
Perusini, J. N., Meyer, E. M., Long, V., Rau, V., Nocera, N. A., Avershal, J., Maksymetz, J., Spigelman, I., & Fanselow, M. S. (2015) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2015.224 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Killgore, W. D. S., Britton, J. C., Schwab, Z. J., Price, L. M., Weiner, M. R., Gold, A. L., Rosso, I. M., Simon, N. M., Pollack, M. H., & Rauch, S. L. (2014) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22156 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Panic and Agoraphobia Scale (PAS).
Bandelow, B. (1999) · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Domschke, K., Ohrmann, P., Braun, M., Suslow, T., Bauer, J., Hohoff, C., Kersting, A., Engelien, A., Arolt, V., Heindel, W. L., et al. (2008) · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.04.016 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Vigilance for Threat Interacts with Amygdala Responses to Subliminal Threat Cues in Specific Phobia
Lipka, J., Miltner, W. H. R., & Straube, T. (2011) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.04.005 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Self-citationPTSD not an anxiety disorder? DSM committee proposal turns back the hands of time
Zoellner, L. A., Rothbaum, B. O., & Feeny, N. C. (2011) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.20899 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Behind the mask: the influence of mask-type on amygdala response to fearful faces
Kim, M. J., Loucks, R. A., Neta, M., Davis, F. C., Oler, J. A., Mazzulla, E. C., & Whalen, P. J. (2010) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsq014 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Rabellino, D., Densmore, M., Frewen, P. A., Théberge, J., & Lanius, R. A. (2016) · Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.12.005 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Zoellner, L. A., Bedard‐Gilligan, M. A., Jun, J. J., Marks, L. H., & Garcia, N. M. (2013) · Psychological Injury and Law · doi:10.1007/s12207-013-9175-6 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Ottaviani, C., Cevolani, D., Nucifora, V., Borlimi, R., Agati, R., Leonardi, M., Plato, G. D., & Brighetti, G. (2012) · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.12.010 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
van den Bulk, B. G., Meens, P. H. F., van Lang, N. D. J., de Voogd, E. L., van der Wee, N. J. A., Rombouts, S. A. R. B., Crone, E. A., & Vermeiren, R. R. J. M. (2014) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00393 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Marsh, A. A. (2015) · Journal of Neuroscience Research · doi:10.1002/jnr.23668 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Straube, T., Langohr, B., Schmidt, S. N. L., Mentzel, H.-J., & Miltner, W. H. R. (2009) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.074 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationKemp, A. H., Felmingham, K. L., Falconer, E. M., Liddell, B. J., Bryant, R. A., & Williams, L. M. (2009) · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.04.012 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Neural mechanisms of the automatic processing of emotional information from faces and voices
Straube, T., Mothes‐Lasch, M., & Miltner, W. H. R. (2011) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02056.x · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Self-citationThe volatility of the amygdala response to masked fearful eyes
Straube, T., Dietrich, C., Mothes‐Lasch, M., Mentzel, H., & Miltner, W. H. R. (2010) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20960 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Self-citationAn evaluation of psychophysical models of auditory change perception.
Micheyl, C., Kaernbach, C., & Demany, L. (2008) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/a0013572 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Brain activation to briefly presented emotional words: Effects of stimulus awareness
Hoffmann, M., Mothes‐Lasch, M., Miltner, W. H. R., & Straube, T. (2014) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.22654 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders
Breit, S., Kupferberg, A., Rogler, G., & Hasler, G. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044 · Cited by 1,189 · see citing works
The influence of subcortical shortcuts on disordered sensory and cognitive processing.
McFadyen, J., Dolan, R. J., & Garrido, M. I. (2020) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-020-0287-1 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Bauer, C. C. C., Caballero, C., Scherer, E., West, M. R., Mrazek, M. D., Phillips, D. T., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2019) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/bne0000337 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
- Authors
- Neumeister, P., Feldker, K., Heitmann, C. Y., Buff, C., Brinkmann, L., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T.
- Affiliations
- University Hospital Münster (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Neumeister, P.
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2017-09-27
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1209-1217
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- OpenAlex
- W2760561242
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 5.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, amygdala, basolateral amygdala, fearful faces, backward masking, threat sensitivity, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety disorders, face detection
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Amygdala, Anxiety Disorders, Cues, Facial Expression, Fear, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Reaction Time, Regression Analysis, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Case-Control Studies, Panic Disorder, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
