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Brief Communication

Nature Neuroscience 12, 1224–1225 (1 October 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn.2380

Intact rapid detection of fearful faces in the absence of the amygdala

Naotsugu Tsuchiya , Farshad Moradi , Csilla Felsen , Madoka Yamazaki & Ralph Adolphs

The amygdala is thought to process fear-related stimuli rapidly and nonconsciously. We found that an individual with complete bilateral amygdala lesions, who cannot recognize fear from faces, nonetheless showed normal rapid detection and nonconscious processing of those same fearful faces.