Cited by 1,609Face Recognition and PerceptionPsychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust

Phillips, M. L., Young, A. W., Senior, C., Brammer, M., Andrew, C., Calder, A. J., Bullmore, E. T., Perrett, D. I. +4 more·1997·Nature

Abstract

Recognition of facial expressions is critical to our appreciation of the social and physical environment, with separate emotions having distinct facial expressions. Perception of fearful facial expressions has been extensively studied, appearing to depend upon the amygdala. Disgust-literally 'bad taste'-is another important emotion, with a distinct evolutionary history, and is conveyed by a characteristic facial expression. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural substrate for perceiving disgust expressions. Normal volunteers were presented with faces showing mild or strong disgust or fear. Cerebral activation in response to these stimuli was contrasted with that for neutral faces. Results for fear generally confirmed previous positron emission tomography findings of amygdala involvement. Both strong and mild expressions of disgust activated anterior insular cortex but not the amygdala; strong disgust also activated structures linked to a limbic cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit. The anterior insula is known to be involved in responses to offensive tastes. The neural response to facial expressions of disgust in others is thus closely related to appraisal of distasteful stimuli.

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Crossref · 10.1038/39051

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  • Disgust is associated with response in basal ganglia and reliable insula response correlating with increasing intensity of disgust.

    “Disgust is associated with response in areas of the basal ganglia (Posamentier and Abdi, 2003) as well as reliable response in the insula, correlating with increasing intensity of disgust (Phillips et al., 1997).”

    From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Phillips et al., 1997

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Authors
Phillips, M. L., Young, A. W., Senior, C., Brammer, M., Andrew, C., Calder, A. J., Bullmore, E. T., Perrett, D. I., Rowland, D., Williams, S. C. R., Gray, J. A., & David, A. S.
Affiliations
  • King's College London (GB)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • University of St Andrews (GB)
Corresponding author
Phillips, M. L.
Venue
Nature
Published
1997-10
Volume
389
Issue
6650
Pages
495-498
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W1805858390
Cited by
1,609
References
32
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 56 · 2013: 73 · 2012: 75
FWCI
23.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
emotion perception, anterior insula, amygdala, neural correlates, social cognition
MeSH terms
Adult, Amygdala, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Taste, Visual Perception

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