This section contains references to selected published papers of the Phelps Lab. Also provided for many of the references are abstracts or PDF documents that can be viewed by simply clicking on the link. PDF documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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Selected Papers

• Hartley CA, Phelps EA. (2010) Changing Fear: the neurocircuitry of emotional
  regulation. Neuropsychopharmacology. 35(1):136-46. [PDF]

• Hirst W, Phelps, EA, Buckner, RL, Budson AE, Cuc A; Gabrieli JDE, Johnson MK, Lustig C, Lyle KB, Mather M, Meksin R, Mitchell KJ, Ochsner KN, Schacter DL, Simons JS, Vaidya, CJ (2009) Long-term memory for the terrorist attack of September 11: flashbulb memories, event memories, and the factors that influence their retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 138(2):161-176. [PDF]

• Sokol-Hessner P, Hsu M, Curley NG, Delgado MR, Camerer CF, Phelps EA. (2009) Thinking like a trader selectively reduces individuals' loss aversion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106(13):5035-5040. [PDF]

• Schiller D, Freeman JB, Mitchell JP, Uleman JS, Phelps EA (2009) A neural mechanism of first impressions. Nature Neuroscience. [PDF]

• Schiller D, Levy I, Niv Y, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA (2008) From fear to safety and back – reversal of fear in the human brain. The Journal of Neuroscience 28:11517-11525 [PDF]

• Delgado MR, Li J, Schiller D, Phelps EA (2008) Review: The role of striatum in aversive learning and aversive prediction errors. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. [PDF]

• Schiller D., Levy I., Niv Y., LeDoux J.E., Phelps E.A. (2008). From fear to safety and back – reversal of fear in the human brain. The Journal of Neuroscience. 28:11517-11525. [PDF]

• Delgado, M.R., Schotter, A., Ozbay, E.Y., Phelps, E.A. Understanding Overbidding: Using the Neural Circuitry of Reward to Design Economic Auctions. (Sept. 26, 2008). Science. 321:1849-1852. [PDF]

• Sharot, T., Davidson, M.L, Carson, M.M., Phelps, E.A. (2008). Eye Movements Predict Recollective Experience. PLoS ONE. 3(8), e2884. [PDF]

• Delgado, M.R., Gillis, M.M., Phelps, E.A. (2008). Regulating the Expectation of Reward via Cognitive Strategies. (August 2008) Nature Neuroscience, 11(8): 880-881. [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A., Sharot. (2008). How (and Why) Emotion Enhances the Subjective Sense of Recollection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(2): 147-152. [PDF]

• Schiller, D., Cain, C.K., Curley, N.G., Schwarz, J.S., Stern, S.A., LeDoux, J.E., Phelps, E.A. (2008). Evidence for Recovery of Fear Following Immediate Extinction in Rats and Humans. Learning & Memory, 15: 394-402. [PDF]

• Stanley, D., Phelps, E.A., Banaji, M. (2008). The Neural Basis of Implicit Attitudes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(2): 164-170. [PDF]

• Levens, Sara M., Phelps, E.A. (2008). Emotion Processing Effects on Interference Resolution in Working Memory. Emotion, 8(2): 267-280. [PDF]

• Sharot, T. , Riccardi, A.M., Raio, C.M., Phelps, E.A. (2007). Neural mechanisms mediating optimism bias. Nature, 450: 102-106. [PDF]

• Butler, T., Pan, H., Tuescher, O., Engelien, A., Goldstein, M., Epstein, J., Weisholtz, D., Root, J.C., Protopopescu, X., Cunningham-Bussel, A.C., Chang, L., Xie, X.-H., Chen, Q., Phelps, E.A., LeDoux, J.E., Stern, E., Silbersweig, D.A. Human fear-related motor neurocircuitry. Neuroscience, 150:1-7. [PDF]
• Ochsner, K.N, Phelps, E.A. (2007). Emerging perspectives on emotion-cognition interactions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(8): 317-318. [PDF]
• Phelps, E.A. (2007). The neuroscience of a person network. The American Journal of Bioethics, 7(1): 49-76. [PDF]

• Olsson, A., Nearing, K.I., Phelps, E.A. (2007). Learning fears by observing others: the neural systems of social fear transmission. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access, 2: 3-11. [PDF]

• Olsson, A, Phelps, E. A. (2007). Social learning of fear. Nature Neuroscience. 10:9:1095-1102. [PDF]

• Sharot, T. Martorella, E.A., Delgado, M.R., Phelps, E.A. (2007). How personal experience modulates the neural circuitry of memories of September 11. PNAS, 104(1): 389-394. [PDF]

• Delgado, M. R. Labouliere, C. D., Phelps, E.A. (2006). Fear of losing money? Aversive conditioning with secondary reinforcers. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1(3): 250-259. [PDF]

• Delgado, M.R. Olsson, A. Phelps, E.A. (2006). Extending animal models of fear conditioning to humans. Biological Psychology. 73: 39–48. [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. (2006) Emotion and cognition: Insights from studies of the human amygdala. Annual Review of Psychology, 24 (57):27-53. [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A., Ling, S., Carrasco, M. (2006). Emotion Facilitates Perception and Potentiates the Perceptual Benefits of Attention. Psychological Science,17 (4): 292-299. [PDF]

• Scott L. Rauch, Lisa M. Shin, and Elizabeth A. Phelps. (2006). Neurocircuitry Models of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Extinction: Human Neuroimaging Research—Past, Present, and Future. Biological Psychiatry. 60:376–382. [PDF]

• Delgado, M.R., Miller, M.M, Inati, S., Phelps, E.A. (2005). An fMRI study of reward-related probability learning. NeuroImage, 24 (3):862-73 [Abstract] [PDF]

• Olsson, A., Ebert, J. P., Banaji, M. R., & Phelps, E. A. (2005). The Role of Social Groups in the Persistence of Learned Fear. Science, 309, 785-787. [PDF]

• Sharot, T. Delgado, M.R. Phelps, E.A. (2004). How emotion enhances the feeling of remembering. Nature Neuroscience. Dec; 7 (12), 1376-1380. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Olsson, A. & Phelps, E.A. (2004). Learned Fear of ‘Unseen’ Faces after Pavlovian, Observational, and Instructed Fear. Psychological Science. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A., Delgado, M.R., Nearing, K.I., LeDoux, J.E. (2004). Extinction learning in humans: Role of the amygdala and vmPFC.  Neuron, 43 (6): 897-905. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. (2004). The human amygdala and awareness: Interactions between emotion and cognition. In M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed) The Cognitive Neurosciences, 3rd ed, Cambridge: MIT Press. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A. (2004). Human emotion and memory: Interactions of the amygdala and hippocampal complex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 14, 198-202. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. & Thomas, L.A. (2003). Race, behavior and the brain: The role of neuroimaging in understanding complex human behaviors. Political Psychology, 24, 747-758. [Abstract] [PDF]

•  Phelps, E.A., Cannaistraci, C.J., & Cunningham, W.A. (2003). Intact performance on an indirect measure of race bias following amygdala damage. Neuropsychologia, 41, 203-208. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. (2002). The cognitive neuroscience of emotion. In M.S. Gazzaniga, R.B.

Ivry & G.R. Mangun (Eds), Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of Mind, 2nd ed. NY:Norton.

• Anderson, A.K. & Phelps, E.A. (2002). Is the human amygdala critical for the subjective experience of emotion? Evidence of intact dispositional affect in patients with amygdala lesions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Anderson, A.K., & Phelps, E.A. (2001). Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events. Nature, 411, 305-309. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. (2001). Faces and races in the brain. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 775-776.[PDF]

• Funayama, E.S., Grillon, C.G., Davis, M. & Phelps, E.A. (2001). A double dissociation in the affective modulation of startle in humans: Effects of unilateral temporal lobectomy. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13 , 1-10. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A., O'Connor, K.J., Gatenby, J.C., Grillon, C., Gore, J.C. & Davis, M. (2001). Activation of the human amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 437-441. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Yancey, S.W. & Phelps, E.A. (2001). Functional neuroimaging and episodic memory: A perspective. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 23, 32-48. [Abstract] [PDF]

•  Anderson, A.K., Fulbright, R.K., Spencer, D.D., & Phelps, E.A. (2000). The respresentation of facial emotion in the anteromedial temporal lobe. Neuropsychology, 14, 526-536. [Abstract]

• Anderson, A.K. & Phelps, E.A. (2000). Perceiving emotion: More than meets the eye, Current Biology, 10, R551-R554. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A., O'Connor, K.J., Cunningham, W.A., Funayma, E.S., Gatenby, J.C., Gore, J.C., Banaji, M.R. (2000). Performance on indirect measures of race evaluation predicts amygdala activity, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 1-10. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Anderson, A.K. & Phelps, E.A. (2000). Expression Without Recognition: Contributions of the Human Amygdala to Emotional Communication. Psychological Science, 11, 106-111. [Abstract]

• LeDoux, J.E. & Phelps, E. A. (2000). Emotion networks in the brain. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland-Jones (eds.) Handbook of Emotion, 2nd ed. NY: Guilford.

• Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Hamann, S., Young, A.W., Calder, A.J., Phelps, E.A., Anderson, A., Lee, G.P., Damasio, A.R. (1999). Recognition of facial emotion in nine individuals with bilateral amygdala damage. Neuropsychologia, 37, 1111-1117. [Abstract] [PDF]

• Phelps, E.A. (1999). Brain vs. Behavioral Studies in Cognition. In R. Sternberg (ed.) Concepts in Cognition. Cambridge: MIT Press. [Abstract]

• Chun, M.M. & Phelps, E.A. (1999). Memory deficits for implicit contextrual information in amnesic subjects with hippocampal damage, Nature Neuroscience, 2, 844-847. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A., LaBar, K.S., Anderson, A.K., O'Connor, K.J. Fulbright, R.K. & Spencer, D.D. (1998). Specifying the contributions of the human amygdala to emotional memory: A case study. Neurocase, 4, 527-540. [Abstract]

• Anderson, A.K. & Phelps, E.A. (1998). Intact recognition of vocal expressions of fear following bilateral lesions of the amygdala. NeuroReport, 9, 3607-3613. [Abstract]

• LaBar, K.S. & Phelps, E.A. (1998). Arousal-mediated memory consolidation: Role of the medial temporal lobe in humans. Psychological Science, 9, 490-493. [Abstract]

• LaBar, K.S., Gatenby, C., Gore, J.C., LeDoux, J.E., Phelps, E.A. (1998). Human amygdala activation during conditioned fear acquisition and extinction: A mixed trial fMRI study. Neuron, 20, 937-945. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A., LaBar, K.S. & Spencer, D.D. (1997). Memory for emotional words following unilateral temporal lobectomy. Brain and Cognition, 35, 85-109. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A. & Anderson, A.K. (1997). Emotional Memory: What does the amygdala do? Current Biology. 7, 311-314. [Abstract]

• Phelps, E.A., Hyder, F., Blamire, A., & Shulman, R.G. (1997). FMRI of the pre-frontal cortex during overt verbal fluency. NeuroReport, 8, 561-565. [Abstract]

• LaBar, K. S., LeDoux, J.E., Spencer, D.D., & Phelps, E.A. (1995). Impaired fear conditioning following unilateral temporal lobectomy in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 15, 6846-6855. [Abstract]

Conference Presentations

• Schiller D., Ledoux J.E., Phelps E.A. REVERSAL OF FEAR LEARNING IN THE HUMAN BRAIN. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 2006.

• Schiller D., Cain C.K., Kuhlman K., Ledoux J.E., Phelps E.A. LEARNING BY DOING – ACTIONS REINFORCED BY FEAR TERMINATION. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics, Canyons Resort, Park City, UT, 2006.



• Schiller D., Ledoux J.E., Phelps E.A. CONTEXT MEDIATED RECOVERY OF EXTINGUISHED FEAR IN HUMANS. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA , 2006.



• Delgado, M., Carson, M., Jou, R., & Phelps, E.A. EMOTION REGULATION OF APPETITIVE CONDITION: REGULATING THE EXPECTATION OF REWARD. CNS, San Francisco, 2006.



• Dougal, S., Phelps, E.A., & Davachi, L. EMOTIONAL MODULATION OF FAMILIARITY AND RECOLLECTIVE PROCESSES IN RECOGNITION: AN FMRI STUDY. 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, 2004.



• Dougal, S., Phelps, E.A., & Davachi, L. THE ROLE OF MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE STRUCTURES IN EMOTIONAL MODULATION OF RECOGNITION PROCESSES. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, 2004.



• MR Delgado, JL Trujillo, BD Holmes, KI Nearing, J LeDoux, EA Phelps. EMOTION REGULATION OF CONDITIONED FEAR: THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF REAPPRAISAL. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2004.



• KI Nearing, MR Delgado, K Stendenfeld, BM Sedgewick, J LeDoux & EA Phelps. EXTINCTION OF CONDITIONED FEAR: ROLE OF THE MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX AND AMYGDALA. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2004.