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Related Experiment Videos

Brain systems for assessing facial attractiveness.

Joel S Winston1, John O'Doherty, James M Kilner

  • 1Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. j.winston@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

Neuropsychologia
|July 11, 2006
PubMed
Summary

The amygdala responds non-linearly to facial attractiveness, showing heightened activity for both highly attractive and unattractive faces compared to average ones. This finding suggests the amygdala

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

  • Facial attractiveness influences human social behavior and is processed in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
  • The amygdala is theoretically implicated in processing stimulus reward value.
  • Previous research has not consistently shown amygdala sensitivity to facial attractiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the amygdala processes facial attractiveness as a reward value.
  • To test the hypothesis of a non-linear amygdala response to facial attractiveness, unlike the linear response in OFC.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to monitor brain activity in human subjects.
  • Participants rated faces for attractiveness or age, while viewing faces of varying attractiveness.

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  • Analysis focused on amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activity patterns.

    • Main Results:

    • The right amygdala exhibited a non-linear response, with increased activation to highly attractive and unattractive faces relative to moderately attractive ones.
    • This non-linear amygdala response was independent of the task (attractiveness or age rating).
    • Different OFC regions showed varied responses, including linear and non-linear effects of attractiveness, and task-specific activations.

    Conclusions:

    • The amygdala's non-linear response profile supports its role in evaluating the value of social stimuli.
    • This finding suggests the amygdala may play a crucial role in social affiliative behaviors.
    • Specific OFC sectors may also contribute to processing social stimulus value.