A mechanism for impaired fear recognition

A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage.
Adolphs R, Gosselin F, Buchanan TW, Tranel D, Schyns P, Damasio AR
Nature, 2005 Jan 6;433(7021):68-72
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Although SM fails to look normally at the eye region in all facial expressions, her selective impairment in recognizing fear is explained by the fact that the eyes are the most important feature for identifying this emotion. Notably, SM's recognition of fearful faces became entirely normal when she was instructed explicitly to look at the eyes.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15635411