The temporal pole (TP) is an associative cortical region required for complex cognitive functions such as social and emotional cognition. However, mapping the TP with functional magnetic resonance imaging is technically challenging and thus understanding its interaction with other key emotional circuitry, such as the amygdala, remains elusive. We exploited the unique advantages of stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) to assess the responses of the TP and the amygdala during the perception of emotionally salient stimuli of pictures, music and movies. These stimuli consistently elicited high gamma responses (70–140 Hz) in both the TP and the amygdala, accompanied by functional connectivity in the low frequency range (2–12 Hz). Computational analyses suggested that the TP drove this effect in the theta frequency range, modulated by the emotional valence of the stimuli. Notably, cross-frequency analysis indicated the phase of theta oscillations in the TP modulated the amplitude of high gamma activity in the amygdala. These results were reproducible across three types of sensory inputs including naturalistic stimuli. Our results suggest that multimodal emotional stimuli induce a hierarchical influence of the TP over the amygdala.

颞极（TP）是复杂的认知功能（例如社交和情感认知）所需的关联皮质区域。然而，用功能性磁共振成像对TP进行映射在技术上具有挑战性，因此了解其与其他关键情感电路（如杏仁核）的相互作用仍然很困难。我们利用立体脑电图（sEEG）的独特优势来评估在感知图片，音乐和电影的情感显着刺激过程中TP和杏仁核的反应。这些刺激在TP和杏仁核中始终引起高伽马响应（70–140 Hz），并伴随着低频范围（2–12 Hz）中的功能连接。计算分析表明，TP在theta频率范围内驱动了这种效应，由刺激的情感价调节。值得注意的是，交叉频率分析表明TP中θ振荡的相位调节了杏仁核中高伽马活性的幅度。这些结果可在包括自然刺激在内的三种类型的感觉输入中再现。我们的研究结果表明，多峰情绪刺激诱导了TP对杏仁核的分级影响。