The role of The Amygdala in Affective and Social Touch

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

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Abstract

The primate amygdala plays an important role in evaluating the emotional and social significance of stimuli. Our understanding of neural processes that support this role comes primarily from studies focused on vision and hearing. Using visual and auditory stimuli we learned that neurons in the amygdala respond selectively to friendly or aggressive facial expressions, to eye contact, and to social calls. Although touch can convey both positive and negative affect and can be used to build social bonds, the cellular bases of touch processing in amygdala have rarely been addressed. Recently we have identified neurons in the primate amygdala that respond to touch. The studies proposed in this application will expand on this initial finding and provide the first detailed characterization of the role of touch-sensitive neurons in the amygdala of primates. Our first aim is to determine the organization of tactile inputs in the amygdala. The second aim is to determine how subjective preference for different types of touch shapes the activity of touch-responsive neurons. The third aim will determine the role of social partners in the subjective evaluation of touch. These studies will take advantage of species-specific value of grooming and explore the role of the primate amygdala in processing the intrinsic valence of natural social stimuli. The three specific aims are bound by a conceptual framework of the amygdala that is informed by anatomical and functional differences between the component nuclei. The simultaneous monitoring of large populations of neurons will allow testing specific hypotheses regarding the transformations that take place in each nucleus. The expected findings will allow us to place touch perception and its cellular implementation in the amygdala into the framework of social neuroscience.