Life Sciences Commons^™

The amygdala is involved in the evaluation of novel stimuli, including faces. We examined whether the amygdala is engaged during the evaluation of emotionally neutral faces along trait-specific dimensions such as trustworthiness and attractiveness or along a general valence dimension. Using behavioral data from evaluation of faces on 14 trait dimensions and fMRI data from an implicit evaluation paradigm, we show that the extent to which the amygdala responds to variations of faces on specific dimensions is a function of the valence content of these dimensions. Variations on dimensions with clear valence connotations (e.g. trustworthiness) engaged the amygdala more strongly …