TY - JOUR
T1 - Amygdala fMRI—A Critical Appraisal of the Extant Literature
AU - Varkevisser, Tim
AU - Geuze, Elbert
AU - van Honk, Jack
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Even before the advent of fMRI, the amygdala occupied a central space in the affective neurosciences. Yet this amygdala-centred view on emotion processing gained even wider acceptance after the inception of fMRI in the early 1990s, a landmark that triggered a goldrush of fMRI studies targeting the amygdala in vivo. Initially, this amygdala fMRI research was mostly confined to task-activation studies measuring the magnitude of the amygdala’s response to emotional stimuli. Later, interest began to shift more towards the study of the amygdala’s resting-state functional connectivity and task-based psychophysiological interactions. Later still, the test-retest reliability of amygdala fMRI came under closer scrutiny, while at the same time, amygdala-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback gained widespread popularity. Each of these major subdomains of amygdala fMRI research has left its marks on the field of affective neuroscience at large. The purpose of this review is to provide a critical assessment of this literature. By integrating the insights garnered by these research branches, we aim to answer the question: What part (if any) can amygdala fMRI still play within the current landscape of affective neuroscience? Our findings show that serious questions can be raised with regard to both the reliability and validity of amygdala fMRI. These conclusions force us to cast doubt on the continued viability of amygdala fMRI as a core pilar of the affective neurosciences.
AB - Even before the advent of fMRI, the amygdala occupied a central space in the affective neurosciences. Yet this amygdala-centred view on emotion processing gained even wider acceptance after the inception of fMRI in the early 1990s, a landmark that triggered a goldrush of fMRI studies targeting the amygdala in vivo. Initially, this amygdala fMRI research was mostly confined to task-activation studies measuring the magnitude of the amygdala’s response to emotional stimuli. Later, interest began to shift more towards the study of the amygdala’s resting-state functional connectivity and task-based psychophysiological interactions. Later still, the test-retest reliability of amygdala fMRI came under closer scrutiny, while at the same time, amygdala-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback gained widespread popularity. Each of these major subdomains of amygdala fMRI research has left its marks on the field of affective neuroscience at large. The purpose of this review is to provide a critical assessment of this literature. By integrating the insights garnered by these research branches, we aim to answer the question: What part (if any) can amygdala fMRI still play within the current landscape of affective neuroscience? Our findings show that serious questions can be raised with regard to both the reliability and validity of amygdala fMRI. These conclusions force us to cast doubt on the continued viability of amygdala fMRI as a core pilar of the affective neurosciences.
KW - Amygdala
KW - emotion
KW - fMRI
KW - functional connectivity
KW - neurofeedback
KW - psychophysiological interaction
KW - resting-state fMRI
KW - salience network
KW - task-based fMRI
KW - test-retest reliability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85201189590&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/26331055241270591
DO - 10.1177/26331055241270591
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85201189590
SN - 2633-1055
VL - 19
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Neuroscience Insights
JF - Neuroscience Insights
ER -