Affective blindsight in the absence of input from face processing regions in occipital-temporal cortex
Faculty Advisor
Date
2017
Keywords
blindsight, emotion, amygdala, face processing
Abstract (summary)
Previous research suggests that the implicit recognition of emotional expressions may be carried out by pathways that bypass primary visual cortex (V1) and project to the amygdala. Some of the strongest evidence supporting this claim comes from case studies of “affective blindsight” in which patients with V1 damage can correctly guess whether an unseen face was depicting a fearful or happy expression. In the current study, we report a new case of affective blindsight in patient MC who is cortically blind following extensive bilateral lesions to V1, as well as face and object processing regions in her ventral visual stream. Despite her large lesions, MC has preserved motion perception which is related to sparing of the motion sensitive region MT+ in both hemispheres.
Publication Information
Striemer, C. L., Whitwell, R. L., & Goodale, M. A. (in press). Affective blindsight in the absence of input from face processing regions in occipital-temporal cortex. Neuropsychologia, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.11.014
Notes
Item Type
Article Post-Print
Language
English
Rights
All Rights Reserved