Amygdala beta bursts modulate hippocampal neuronal dynamics during human emotional processing
Abstract
The amygdala and hippocampus are key structures in emotional processing, yet the transient neural dynamics coordinating their interaction remain poorly understood. We simultaneously recorded single-neuron activity and local field potentials from these regions in epilepsy patients performing an emotional image-rating task. Neurons in both regions exhibited firing rate changes predictive of subjective emotional valence. While conventional spectral analysis revealed no valence-specific patterns, beta bursts (13-30 Hz)-transient, high-power events-were selectively modified by task features. In both regions, beta bursts were associated with increased gamma amplitude and enhanced phase coherence, with beta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling capturing emotion-related dynamics. Critically, amygdala beta bursts were associated with valence-dependent, bidirectional modulation of hippocampal interneuron firing - decreased during very unpleasant/highest arousal processing and increased during high-arousal very pleasant processing - while putative pyramidal-cell firing did not change significantly. Hippocampal bursts showed no reciprocal influence. These findings suggest that beta bursts may represent a temporally precise neural correlate of emotional appraisal and a potential target for neuromodulation in mood disorders.
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BibTeX
@article{zhou2026amygdala,
title = {{Amygdala beta bursts modulate hippocampal neuronal dynamics during human emotional processing}},
author = {Yajun Zhou and Yuqing Huang and Giana F. Pittaro and Behzad Zareian and Ayman Aljishi and Alondra P. Toro and Zion Zibly and Sami Obaid and Adithya Sivaraju and Ilan Harpaz-Rotem and Alfred Kaye and John Krystal and Kevin Sheth and Xiaosi Gu and Christopher Pittenger and Eyiyemisi C. Damisah},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77952-9},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77952-9},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Amygdala beta bursts modulate hippocampal neuronal dynamics during human emotional processing
AU - Yajun Zhou
AU - Yuqing Huang
AU - Giana F. Pittaro
AU - Behzad Zareian
AU - Ayman Aljishi
AU - Alondra P. Toro
AU - Zion Zibly
AU - Sami Obaid
AU - Adithya Sivaraju
AU - Ilan Harpaz-Rotem
AU - Alfred Kaye
AU - John Krystal
AU - Kevin Sheth
AU - Xiaosi Gu
AU - Christopher Pittenger
AU - Eyiyemisi C. Damisah
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77952-9
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77952-9
AB - The amygdala and hippocampus are key structures in emotional processing, yet the transient neural dynamics coordinating their interaction remain poorly understood. We simultaneously recorded single-neuron activity and local field potentials from these regions in epilepsy patients performing an emotional image-rating task. Neurons in both regions exhibited firing rate changes predictive of subjective emotional valence. While conventional spectral analysis revealed no valence-specific patterns, beta bursts (13-30 Hz)-transient, high-power events-were selectively modified by task features. In both regions, beta bursts were associated with increased gamma amplitude and enhanced phase coherence, with beta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling capturing emotion-related dynamics. Critically, amygdala beta bursts were associated with valence-dependent, bidirectional modulation of hippocampal interneuron firing - decreased during very unpleasant/highest arousal processing and increased during high-arousal very pleasant processing - while putative pyramidal-cell firing did not change significantly. Hippocampal bursts showed no reciprocal influence. These findings suggest that beta bursts may represent a temporally precise neural correlate of emotional appraisal and a potential target for neuromodulation in mood disorders.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -