Figure 2
Responses to different experimental conditions in both amygdalae Coronal and transversal views of the activation foci in both amygdalae. These SPMs are derived from the interaction contrast identity × emotion (see Methods) and are superimposed on an averaged T1-weighted MR image of all our subjects. Arrows are pointing to the maximally activated voxel in the region. We report left amygdala activation in the light of bilateral activation shown previously in similar tasks [11,14]. Top left and right panels. Group mean parameter estimates (regression coefficients ± s.e.m.) to each of the experimental conditions for bilateral amygdala are shown. Condition VICE elicits the largest activation of the peak voxels in both amygdalae and is significantly larger than all other experimental conditions. Asterisks (*) indicate significant difference of respective condition compared with condition VICE at the specified uncorrected significance level. Bottom left and right panels. Detailed (emotion-specific) analysis of condition VICE. Category labels refer to maximally fearful, neutral, and maximally happy facial expression. Intermediate categories are minimally fearful and minimally happy facial expression. Largest activations are elicited by maximally fearful faces. Asterisks (*) indicate significant differences between the respective emotion compared with maximally fearful faces at the specified uncorrected significance level.