The amygdala is critical for learning the emotional significance of stimuli and effecting appropriate changes in behavioral vigilance and physiological arousal in response to environmental challenges (1). It is especially reactive to threatening stimuli, and the magnitude of reactivity is associated with individual differences in the behavioral expression of threat sensitivity as well as the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders (2). Identifying both biological and environmental factors that contribute to variability in threat-related amygdala reactivity is an important step in understanding the etiology of dysfunctional emotional processing and related risk for psychopathology.
