Differential extrageniculostriate and amygdala responses to presentation of emotional faces in a cortically blind field

Patient G.Y. is able to discriminate emotional facial expressions presented in his blind (right) hemifield despite an extensive lesion of the correspo nding (left) striate cortex. One proposal is that this residual ability (af fective 'blindsight') depends on a subcortical visual pathway comprising th e superior colliculus, posterior (extrageniculate) thalamus and amygdala, H ere we report differential amygdala responses in G.Y. to presentation of fe arful and fear-conditioned faces in his blind (right) hemifield, These amyg dala responses exhibited condition-dependent covariation with neural activi ty in the posterior thalamus and superior colliculus. Our results provide f urther evidence that an extrageniculostriate (colliculo-thalamo-amygdala) n eural pathway can process fear-related stimuli independently of both the st riate cortex and normal phenomenal visual awareness.