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A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust

Nature volume 389, pages 495–498 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

Recognition of facial expressions is critical to our appreciation of the social and physical environment, with separate emotions having distinct facial expressions1. Perception of fearful facial expressions has been extensively studied, appearing to depend upon the amygdala2,3,4,5,6. Disgust — literally ‘bad taste’ — is another important emotion, with a distinct evolutionary history7, and is conveyed by a characteristic facial expression8,9,10. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural substrate for perceiving disgust expressions. Normal volunteers were presented with faces showing mild or strong disgust or fear. Cerebral activation in response to these stimuli was contrasted with that for neutral faces. Results for fear generally confirmed previous positron emission tomography findings of amygdala involvement. Both strong and mild expressions of disgust activated anterior insular cortex but not the amygdala; strong disgust also activated structures linked to a limbic cortico–striatal–thalamic circuit. The anterior insula is known to be involved in responses to offensive tastes. The neural response to facial expressions of disgust in others is thus closely related to appraisal of distasteful stimuli.

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Figure 1: Faces from a standard set14 were computer-transformed15, to create two levels of intensity of expressed fear and disgust.
Figure 2: Generic brain activations in seven right-handed normal subjects during perception of faces depicting 75% (top row) and 150% (bottom row) disgust intensity.
Figure 3: The difference image demonstrating significant (P < 0004) differences in activation for perception of faces depicting 150% intensity of disgust (versus a neutral expression) and faces depicting 75% intensity of disgust (versus a neutral expression).

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Acknowledgements

M.L.P. is supported by an MRC clinical training fellowship; E.T.B. is supported by the Wellcome Trust. We thank H. Critchley for advice and for comments on the manuscript, and A.Simmons for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry and Institute of Psychiatry, 103 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, UK

    M. L. Phillips, C. Senior & A. S. David

  2. Applied Psychology Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 2EF, UK

    A. W. Young & A. J. Calder

  3. Neuroimaging Unit, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    C. Andrew & S. C. R. Williams

  4. Brain Image Analysis Unit, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    M. Brammer & E. T. Bullmore

  5. Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    J. A. Gray

  6. School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU, UK

    D. I. Perrett & D. Rowland

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  1. M. L. Phillips
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Correspondence to M. L. Phillips.

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Phillips, M., Young, A., Senior, C. et al. A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust. Nature 389, 495–498 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/39051

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