The amygdala, top-down effects, and selective attention to features

► The amygdala exerts top-down effects on perception. ► The amygdala is involved in spatial and non-spatial orienting. ► An amygdalar role in guiding feature-based attention connects these effects. ► This explains why the amygdala is not activated during spatial guidance of attention. ► Responses to simple elements, e.g., during conditioning, fit with this account.