Scientists at the University of Oxford have demonstrated, for the first time, that a key emotional centre deep in the human brain directly influences how we interpret ambiguous social cues.
In a new study, published in Neuron, researchers used low-intensity focused ultrasound to temporarily and non-invasively alter activity in the amygdala - a region known to be involved in emotion and affected in depression. They found that this changed how people responded to facial expressions, particularly when those expressions were emotionally unclear.
The findings provide rare causal evidence in humans about how the brain processes uncertainty in emotional situations, with potential implications for understanding mental health conditions.
Miriam Klein-Flügge, Associate Professor and Wellcome Henry Dale and ERC-UKRI Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN), said: 'It has not been previously possible to change activity in deep areas of the human brain without requiring surgery. Oxford has been a key player in establishing a new, non-invasive neurostimulation technique called transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), over many years, and this is the first study that applies this stimulation to the human amygdala - one of the key centres for emotion processing - while also measuring very precise neuroimaging signals to assess how we have changed the brain.'