Functional neuroimaging studies of emotional processing and inhibitory control have revealed an important modulatory role of the prefrontal cortex, especially in the right hemisphere, on amygdala responses (Nakamura et al 1999; Narumoto et al 2000; Beauregard et al 2001). In line with this evidence, a significant response was observed bilaterally in the amygdala to facial expressions, but the magnitude of the right amygdala response was larger than that of the left. It was the response of the right amygdala alone that habituated over successive scans (Hariri et al 2002), and a larger response was illustrated in the right (not the left) amygdala.
