Animal models suggest that the amygdala has a broad role in modulating emotional learning and memory, as well learned emotional responses. The human amygdala is commonly characterized as being important for most forms of emotional learning and memory. However, the research on the human amygdala to date has only examined a few paradigms and does not support this broader interpretation. The overarching goal of this proposal is to determine the extent of the human arnygdala's involvement in emotional learning and memory and to characterize its role. By examining the role of the human amygdala in a range of emotional learning and memory tasks, we can begin to discover the extent to which these animal models (and popular descriptions) of the amygdala accurately reflect the human amygdala. Two techniques will be used to examine amygdala function in humans. Studies on patients with amygdala damage will indicate if this structure is critical for normal performance on a given task. FMR about studies in normal subjects will provide additional support for the involvement of the amygdala in these tasks and will also indicate other brain regions that may be important. There are three primary goals. First, we hope to confirm the findings of hippocampal modulation with additional paradigms and expand this research by varying the timing and source of emotional stimulus presentation (Section 1). Second, we want to determine how widespread the amvgdala's modulation of memory is; specifically does it extend to other memory systems that underlie skill/habit learning (Section 2), perceptual priming (Section 3) and working memory (Section 4). Third, we hope to specify the amygdala's role in modulating learned emotional responses to stimuli whose emotional significance is learned by means other than fear conditioning. We propose to examine the emotional learning circumstances under which the amygdala is (or is not) critical for normal skin conductance, heart rate, eyeblink startle and subjective emotional responses (Section 5).
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