Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Amygdala and Fear
What if we were fearless? Fear can be a disturbing feeling but it is advantageous for us to have fear. When we experience fear we physiologically experience much of the "fight or flight" autonomic responses. The fear sensation makes us attentive to details and prepare us for quick action for safety. A small structure in the brain, called the amygdala, is important for us be fearful. The amygdala doesn't make us feel fear but instead helps us attend to details and stimuli that is interpreted to fear. Damage to the amygdala stunts fear, the person would be able to know they should be afraid but would not experience the sensation. Without fear we would engage in dangerous activities even if we know we shouldn't. Take for example SM, SM (a woman with damage to her amygdala) continue to grab venomous snakes that she knew she was afraid of and disregarding her better judgement. Furthermore, she (SM) would have difficulty recognizing fearful expressions as well as drawing fear on a paper or as facial expression. What was observed was that SM would concentrate on the nose and mouth versus the eyes on a face. This also made it difficult to recognize people she had already met. I researched a bit further into the subject and came a cross a journal article on this subject. The results were that while damage to the amygdala would affect recognition of fear and the identity of faces they can be independently impaired. I included two video clips: 1) of a rat before having an amygdala lesion and 2) post-amygdala lesion. This is a good visual example of the amygdala and fear relationship.
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4 comments:
awesome post, especially when you talked about SM, I looked her up as well, and i was like "WHAT?" because she was basically fearless haha, I don't think I can imagine my life without fear, because holy cow I fear many things, I wish I can be without fear but I think it's a dangerous line to cross because you'll never know what limits to pass or not to pass.
i dont know what i would do if i were to be facing this disorder and not have to have fear..you will never be able to know when you have to do something to protect you because theres no fear that can enable this response. good topic and great info :)
IT's funny how a lot of people think of being fearless as a great thing. I guess when you really think about it, it kinda saves our lives. I had never heard about SM before. I didn't even know people like that existed! I'm with Karla, though. I really don't know what I would do if I had no fear. It would be be weird, for instance, to come across an angry bear or something and think to yourself, "This is totally okay."
Personally, I consider myself to be a very anxious person and I sometimes feel like I might be missing out on so much by being so afraid. But after reading your post I have definitely realized that fear is not such a bad thing after all. It truly does help us stay safe and protects us by making us want to avoid a threatening situation. We do have to think reasonably and correctly determine what a dangerous situation is and what is not. If extreme unreasonable fear is not controlled it could become a phobia, leading to worse outcomes. It was very interesting and informative and it was interesting to think about the “what-If”.
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