Awareness modulates responses of the amygdala and the visual cortex to highly arousing visual threat

► We studied brain responses to highly arousing threatening vs. neutral pictures. ► We presented the scenes very briefly during two backward-masking conditions. ► Signal detection analysis verified the effective manipulation of awareness. ► In supraliminal condition, we found amygdala and extrastriate visual activation. ► There was no activation of the ROIs in the subliminal condition.