Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 26, Issue 40, Pages 10120-10128Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2567-06.2006
Keywords
amygdala; working memory; emotion; cognitive control; goal-relevance; fMRI
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH066088-03, MH 66088, R01 MH066088] Funding Source: Medline
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The human amygdala has classically been viewed as a brain structure primarily related to emotions and dissociated from higher cognition. We report here findings suggesting that the human amygdala also has a role in supporting working memory (WM), a canonical higher cognitive function. In a first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (n=53), individual differences in amygdala activity predicted behavioral performance in a 3-back WM task. Specifically, higher event-related amygdala amplitude predicted faster response time (RT; r=-0.64), with no loss of accuracy. This relationship was not contingent on mood state, task content, or personality variables. In a second fMRI study (n=21), we replicated the key finding (r=-0.47) and further showed that the correlation between the amygdala and faster RT was specific to a high working memory load condition (3-back) compared with a low working memory load condition (1-back). These results support models of amygdala function that can account for its involvement not only in emotion but also higher cognition.
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