Amygdala Sensitivity to Race Is Not Present in Childhood but Emerges over Adolescence

2012/10/15 by Eva H. Telzer, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Mor Shapiro +1 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Neuroscience · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Face Recognition and Perception #Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00311

openalex publication_date 2012/10/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Neuroimaging research in adults has consistently found that differential perception of race is associated with increased amygdala activity. We hypothesized that such neural biases unlikely reflect innate processes but instead emerge over development. In the current study, we used fMRI to examine the neurodevelopmental trajectory of the amygdala in response to race across childhood and adolescence ranging from 4 to 16 years. Thirty-two youths viewed African American and European American faces during a functional brain scan. Results suggest that differential amygdala response to African American faces does not emerge until adolescence, reflecting the increasing salience of race across development. In addition, greater peer diversity was associated with attenuated amygdala response to African American faces, suggesting that intergroup racial contact may reduce the salience of race.

Citations

• The Emotional Brain, Fear, and the Amygdala
• Understanding Ethnic Diversity
• The White standard: Racial bias in leader categorization.
• A Developmental Examination of Amygdala Response to Facial Expressions
• The formation of in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice in young children: Are they distinct attitudes?

Cited by

• A review of neuroimaging studies of race-related prejudice: does amygdala response reflect threat?
• Racism [wikipedia]