BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The amygdala has been proposed to act as a “relevance detector” involved in the processing of behaviorally relevant or significant stimuli. We investigated that putative function of the amygdala in the context of human social values, such as achievement, honesty or stimulation. METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a behavioral task of social values rating. During the task, participants were presented with different social values and asked to rate their importance as guiding principles in their lives. We used the conjunction analysis of values and their ratings to localize brain regions where value ratings modulated activity evoked by value processing. RESULTS: The conjunction analysis with the amygdala mask revealed that amygdala activity during value processing correlated with value rating scores. Moreover, the rating scores modified activity in the visual cortex during the response phase, when participants were pressing response buttons, so that higher scores were associated with stronger activation. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the amygdala can code the subjective importance of social values. The increased activity in the visual cortex with higher rating scores may reflect amplified processing within the ventral visual stream, mediated by the amygdala. An intriguing possibility is that excitatory feedback from the amygdala in response to more important/significant stimuli during task performance could enhance functional connectivity between the amygdala and visual cortex. To investigate if that connectivity differed according to the ratings of value importance, a psychophysiological interaction analysis will be performed in further analysis.
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