The Role of the Amygdala in Facial Recognition

The aim of this essay is to discuss the role of the amygdala in facial recognition. It argues that it has an important role in the processing of salient emotions. However, the sub-nuclei of the amygdala may be of differing importance in terms of their contributions to the facial recognition process. The amygdala should also be analysed in the context of broader facial processing networks when understanding its function. Recommendations for further longitudinal studies of neural structures on genetically defined populations in response to stimuli to enhance our understanding of the amygdala’s role within broader neural networks are discussed.