Abstract
Facial emotion perception is fundamental to human social behaviour, and changes with age. Nevertheless, age-related differences in the relative activation of components of emotion processing networks are poorly understood. Thus we measured brain activity with event-related fMRI in 40 right handed healthy male controls, age range 8-50 years, during implicit processing of fearful, disgusted, and a control condition of neutral facial expressions. There was a significant negative correlation between increasing age and neural response to fearful and disgusted expressions in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (BA 10), and middle frontal gyri (BA 6). Hence, in healthy subjects, the functional anatomy of facial emotion processing is not 'hard-wired', but undergoes progressive change into adulthood. Possible explanations for the age-related changes in dorsomedial and middle frontal cortical activity may include a reduction in the attentional demands of appraising facial expressions as perceptual skill increases, or changes in processing the self-relevance of facial expressions during social and cognitive development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 389-397 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | NeuroImage |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 Mar 1 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neurology
Cite this
Changes in male brain responses to emotional faces from adolescence to middle age. / Deeley, Quinton; Daly, Eileen M.; Azuma, Rayna; Surguladze, Simon; Giampietro, Vincent; Brammer, Michael J.; Hallahan, Brian; Dunbar, Robin I M; Phillips, Mary L.; Murphy, Declan G M.
In: NeuroImage, Vol. 40, No. 1, 01.03.2008, p. 389-397.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in male brain responses to emotional faces from adolescence to middle age
AU - Deeley, Quinton
AU - Daly, Eileen M.
AU - Azuma, Rayna
AU - Surguladze, Simon
AU - Giampietro, Vincent
AU - Brammer, Michael J.
AU - Hallahan, Brian
AU - Dunbar, Robin I M
AU - Phillips, Mary L.
AU - Murphy, Declan G M
PY - 2008/3/1
Y1 - 2008/3/1
N2 - Facial emotion perception is fundamental to human social behaviour, and changes with age. Nevertheless, age-related differences in the relative activation of components of emotion processing networks are poorly understood. Thus we measured brain activity with event-related fMRI in 40 right handed healthy male controls, age range 8-50 years, during implicit processing of fearful, disgusted, and a control condition of neutral facial expressions. There was a significant negative correlation between increasing age and neural response to fearful and disgusted expressions in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (BA 10), and middle frontal gyri (BA 6). Hence, in healthy subjects, the functional anatomy of facial emotion processing is not 'hard-wired', but undergoes progressive change into adulthood. Possible explanations for the age-related changes in dorsomedial and middle frontal cortical activity may include a reduction in the attentional demands of appraising facial expressions as perceptual skill increases, or changes in processing the self-relevance of facial expressions during social and cognitive development.
AB - Facial emotion perception is fundamental to human social behaviour, and changes with age. Nevertheless, age-related differences in the relative activation of components of emotion processing networks are poorly understood. Thus we measured brain activity with event-related fMRI in 40 right handed healthy male controls, age range 8-50 years, during implicit processing of fearful, disgusted, and a control condition of neutral facial expressions. There was a significant negative correlation between increasing age and neural response to fearful and disgusted expressions in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (BA 10), and middle frontal gyri (BA 6). Hence, in healthy subjects, the functional anatomy of facial emotion processing is not 'hard-wired', but undergoes progressive change into adulthood. Possible explanations for the age-related changes in dorsomedial and middle frontal cortical activity may include a reduction in the attentional demands of appraising facial expressions as perceptual skill increases, or changes in processing the self-relevance of facial expressions during social and cognitive development.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.11.023
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.11.023
M3 - Article
VL - 40
SP - 389
EP - 397
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
SN - 1053-8119
IS - 1
ER -