Carmen Morawetz1,2, Juergen Baudewig1, Stefan Treue2,3, Peter Dechent1
1MR-Research in Neurology & Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Georg August University, Goettingen, Germany; 2Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, Goettingen, Germany; 3Bernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience, Goettingen, Germany
Faces provide complex visual information at multiple spatial frequencies (low/high spatial frequency; LSF/HSF). It has been demonstrated that the amygdala is preferentially activated by LSF filtered faces. We investigated the impact of stimulus eccentricity and different spatial frequencies on face processing in the amygdala using fMRI. Pairs of images (filtered face and Fourier transformed image) were presented at one of two eccentricities. Subjects indicated on which side the face appeared. The results showed that the amygdala is not preferentially engaged in the processing of LSF aspects of emotional expressions as both frequency ranges are equally implicated in face perception.