Читать книгу Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett - Страница 84

Hypothesis: The perception of disgust responses in the facial expressions of others would be associated with activation of the insula but not the amygdala.

Research Method: Across four experiments, seven participants viewed photos of male and female facial expressions reflecting disgust, fear, or no emotion. They believed that the purpose of the study was to identify the sex of the person in the photo, when in fact the researchers were interested in their perception of and response to facial expressions. The experiments were completed while the participants were undergoing fMRI scanning.

Results: As expected, perception of disgust expressions led to greater activation of the insula (but not the amygdala), whereas exposure to fear expressions activated the amygdala (but not the insula).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that there are specific and distinct neural bases for the perception of disgust and of fear. Prior research found that the insula was activated in the experience of food-related disgust. Importantly, this study showed that the neural substrate for nonmoral disgust (associated with foul odors) is similar to that for moral disgust.

Source: Adapted from Phillips, M. L., Young, A. W., Senior, C., Brammer, M., Andrew, C., Clader, E. T., . . . David, A. S. (1997). A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust. Nature, 389, 495–498.