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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 8, 2026

How to Detect Amygdala Activity with Magnetoencephalography using Source Imaging

How to Detect Amygdala Activity with Magnetoencephalography using Source Imaging

Published on: June 3, 2013

The human amygdala is necessary for developing and expressing normal interpersonal trust.

Timothy R Koscik¹, Daniel Tranel

¹Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, IA 52246, USA. timothy-koscik@uiowa.edu

Neuropsychologia

|October 6, 2010

Summary

The amygdala (a brain region) is crucial for normal interpersonal trust. Damage to the amygdala leads to increased benevolence, even after betrayal, potentially increasing exploitation risk.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Social Psychology
Behavioral Economics

Background:

The amygdala processes social, emotional, and reward information, and is implicated in recognizing trustworthiness from faces.
Previous neuroimaging studies using economic tasks like the Trust Game (TG) have not consistently shown amygdala involvement in interpersonal trust.
The precise role of the amygdala in the development and expression of interpersonal trust remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the amygdala's role in developing and expressing interpersonal trust.
To examine how focal amygdala damage affects trust behavior in an economic game.
To compare the trust behaviors of individuals with amygdala damage to those with other brain lesions and neurologically normal individuals.

Main Methods:

A multi-round, multiplayer economic exchange task (a version of the Trust Game) was administered to a large sample of participants.
Participants included individuals with unilateral damage to the amygdala, individuals with brain damage excluding the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or insular cortex, and neurologically normal controls.
Behavioral data on trust and betrayal responses were collected and analyzed.

Main Results:

Participants with unilateral amygdala damage exhibited increased benevolent behavior in the Trust Game, notably increasing trust even after experiencing betrayal.
Neurologically normal participants typically reciprocated trust, decreasing trust after betrayal and increasing it in response to others' trust.
Control participants with non-amygdala brain damage showed ambivalent responses to trust and betrayal.

Conclusions:

The amygdala is essential for the development and expression of typical interpersonal trust.
Amygdala damage may lead to abnormal social behavior, characterized by excessive benevolence towards others' defections.
This heightened benevolence in individuals with amygdala damage could increase their vulnerability to exploitation.