Aberrant amygdala reactions could play a part in exacerbating a host of psychopathologies. Indeed, numerous studies have identified abnormal amygdala responses to facial expressions across a variety of psychopathologies involving emotional dysfunction such as major depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism. More importantly, amygdala responses to facial expressions have been used to predict treatment outcomes in both depression and generalized anxiety disorder with lower pretreatment levels of amygdala response predicting better treatment outcomes.
Read more: Face to Face with the Emotional Brain - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences