Brain-wide circuits that coordinate affective and social behaviours intersect in the amygdala. Consequently, amygdala lesions cause a heterogeneous array of social and non-social deficits. Social behaviours are not localized to subdivisions of the amygdala even though the inputs and outputs that carry social signals are anatomically restricted to distinct subnuclear regions. This observation may be explained by the multidimensional response properties of the component neurons. Indeed, the multitudes of circuits that converge in the amygdala enlist the same subset of neurons into different ensembles that combine social and non-social elements into high-dimensional representations. These representations may enable flexible, context-dependent social decisions. As such, multidimensional processing may operate in parallel with subcircuits of genetically identical neurons that serve specialized and functionally dissociable functions. When combined, the activity of specialized circuits may grant specificity to social behaviours, whereas multidimensional processing facilitates the flexibility and nuance needed for complex social behaviour.

协调情感和社会行为的全脑回路在杏仁核中交叉。因此，杏仁核病变会导致一系列异类的社会和非社会缺陷。即使携带社交信号的输入和输出在解剖学上仅限于不同的亚核区域，社交行为也不局限于杏仁核的细分。这种观察结果可以通过组成神经元的多维响应特性来解释。事实上，在杏仁核中汇聚的大量回路将相同的神经元子集纳入不同的集合，将社会和非社会元素组合成高维表示。这些表示可以实现灵活的、依赖于上下文的社会决策。像这样，多维处理可以与基因相同的神经元的子电路并行运行，这些神经元提供专门的和功能上可分离的功能。当结合时，专门电路的活动可能赋予社会行为特异性，而多维处理促进复杂社会行为所需的灵活性和细微差别。