Rapid Processing of Invisible Fearful Faces in the Human Amygdala

Rapid detection of a threat or its symbol (e.g., fearful face), whether visible or invisible, is critical for human survival. This function is suggested to be enabled by a subcortical pathway to the amygdala independent of the cortex. However, conclusive electrophysiological evidence in humans is scarce. Here, we explored whether the amygdala can rapidly encode invisible fearful faces. We recorded intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) responses in the human (both sexes) amygdala to faces with fearful, happy, and neutral emotions rendered invisible by backward masking. We found that a short-latency intracranial event-related potential (iERP) in the amygdala, beginning 88 ms poststimulus onset, was preferentially evoked by invisible fearful faces relative to invisible happy or neutral faces. The rapid iERP exhibited selectivity to the low spatial frequency (LSF) component of the fearful faces. Time-frequency iEEG analyses further identified a rapid amygdala response preferentially for LSF fearful faces at the low gamma frequency band, beginning 45 ms poststimulus onset. In contrast, these rapid responses to invisible fearful faces were absent in cortical regions, including early visual areas, the fusiform gyrus, and the parahippocampal gyrus. These findings provide direct evidence for the existence of a subcortical pathway specific for rapid fear detection in the amygdala and demonstrate that the subcortical pathway can function without conscious awareness and under minimal influence from cortical areas.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Automatic detection of biologically relevant stimuli, such as threats or dangers, has remarkable survival value. Here, we provide direct intracranial electrophysiological evidence that the human amygdala preferentially responds to fearful faces at a rapid speed, despite the faces being invisible. This rapid, fear-selective response is restricted to faces containing low spatial frequency information transmitted by magnocellular neurons and does not appear in cortical regions. These results support the existence of a rapid subcortical pathway independent of cortical pathways to the human amygdala.