Amygdala Psychology

The amygdala specializes in threat detection, fear, excitement, and arousal, hippocampus helps format long-term declarative memories and spatial reasoning. The anterior cingulate cortex influences autonomic function, decision making, error detection and emotion while the posterior has a role in spatial annotations memory. The septal area produces pleasurable feeling,

D. S., Decety, J. and Blair, R. J. R. (2013). Empathic responsiveness in amygdala and anterior

Inquire about one of the non-prove based medications from the Chung (2012) digital book, condense perspectives of this treatment inside its authentic setting.

Many studies have shown us that a specific area of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for instinctual reactions. These reactions include fear and aggressive behaviour. These instinctual reactions area

The Amygdala associates experiences and things in this world to emotional reactions that we have.

In the addition to the hormone testosterone, other biological factors such as brain structures contribute to the behaviour of aggression. The amygdala is a part of the limbic system which is located in the frontal lobe of the brain. The amygdala is considered to function or mediate the expression of rage and fear. Research was conducted of rhesus Monkeys to determine if the amygdala was responsible for the behaviour of rage (Harry Harlow,1955). Researchers removed this region to determine the effect on the aggressive monkeys. The removal of the amygdala caused the monkeys to act lethargic and docile and inability to respond or to recognise possible threats. This research displayed the function of the amygdala in determining the fight or flight response in dangerous situations, contributing to when a human or animal should display aggressive behaviour. Therefore the amygdala’s role in regulating

Emotions run the world: many buy the “perfect dress” to feel confident, others run for fun, and others sleep as their sadness increases. Thus, in a world where emotions lead, mankind struggles to reason. Dr. Mark G. Baxter, a neuroscientist at Harvard University, and Dr. Elisabeth A. Murray, a Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health, are perfect examples of why many professionals in the science and medical field should start to investigate the amygdala, an “almond-shaped group of nuclein” associated with emotion, due to it being one of the most important parts of the brain as it is what defines what people do in their everyday basis. Nature, one of the most respected journals in the scientific community, published Dr. Baxter and Dr. Murray’s “The Amygdala and Reward” on July 2002 Nature Publishing Group arguing through ethos and logical appeals that the amygdala processes reward in the brain as well a negative emotions. Both neuroscientists prove the importance of understanding the connections between reward and emotions by analyzing their experiments performed on moneys and other primates, and including facts and statistics from other scientists and doctors. This well crafted article conscientiously analyzes how the amygdala’s role in stimulus-reward learning might be just as important as its role in processing negative fear and conditioning by providing credibility, reliability, logic, and reason to the audience.

Research confirms that the amygdala is very important in the role of understanding emotions such as fear. A study was conducted by Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio and Damasio in order to test this. Subjects who all had damage to the amygdala were selected, these individuals where known as the target subjects. A

Some professionals think that a common characteristic of many serial killers is schizophrenia, but the most common diagnosis among serial killers is Antisocial Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder is another psychological diagnosis of some killers. One thing everyone agrees on, though, is the shortage of empathy possessed by a serial killer. It has been noted that in the amygdala of a psychopath, stress often gets stuck in the high, off-the-charts range.

The amygdala has been the subject of many researchers’ curiosity throughout the history of neurological science and neuropsychology. Multiple studies have been successful in identifying the role of the amygdala in the human brain and it’s primary

The amygdala video was very informing to me. Our amygdala is a small region in our brain that is in the temporal lobe which is located behind your ear. The first part that stuck with me through this video is the picture/shape that he gave. Our amygdala is shaped like an almond where it primarily associated with fear because it is must easier to study fear than things that are good. The amygdala gets sensory information directly from the various sensory systems. I think that it’s interesting that our amygdala can take in information for the environment and use the information. Our brain knows when something painful is about to happen. I think this can tie into the way I feel before I get a shot from the doctor. My brain knows which allows me

The adult brain is crowned by the cerebral cortex which is a wrinkled mass of tissue which is ¼ centimeters thick. The cerebral cortex contains many systems one of which is the limbic system of the brain that drives a person’s appetite, moods and emotions. There is a well connected relationship between the “feeling” area of the brain and the “thinking” area of the brain. One area effects the other at all times. Amygdala is the first part to respond to emotions that triggers a series of split second reactions within the emotional cord. Waves of nerve impulses travel down the brain stem that sets of an instantaneous response throughout the body. Scientists have discovered that emotions like fear, happiness, grief and anger have a physical place in the brain. These emotions can be seen though brain scans or MRIs. The emotions have specific neural circuitry that has been developed thorough the lifespan of a human though experiences. The pre frontal cortex has already developed so adults tend to make rational decision unless affected by mental illness.

The amygdala is responsible for our emotional memories. Damage to the amygdala could impact us negatively causing us to misinterpret our memories and our emotions related to those memories. What should cause fear and anger could be diminished to a point that could cost you significantly if the amygdala is damaged. For example, if you don’t remember a negative emotion with a certain action in a memory of the past that has impacted you negatively, you might continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. By taking the same actions without causing you any fear and anxiety of loss or damage could cause you major negative effects in your

The importance of the amygdala in social cognitions has been examined in both primate and human studies. Use of primates to study the social brain suggests that the amygdala contributes to social cognition. Kluver and Bucy made large bilateral lesions in monkey brains made across the amygdala, temporal neocortex, and surrounding structure. After the lesion, the animals engaged in hypersexual behaviors, unusual tameness, and a lack of knowledge about emotional stimuli. Lesions exclusively targeting the monkey’s amygdala resulted in similar, but more subtle impairments. This suggest that the amygdala may play a role in emotions elicited by social cues. Studies of the amygdala’s role in human social cognition suggest that the temporal lobes process socially relevant facial information from humans. Emotions from facial expressions, in particular fear are projected to the amygdala. Studies using FMRI to examine typical subjects and subjects with amygdala damage support this theory. Individuals with amygdala damage have difficulty recognizing facial expressions, specifically negative emotions such as fear.

Chapter 2 is centered on the early attempts to identify the brain’s components of emotions. Key researchers that are discussed are a Cornell neuroanatomist, James Papez, and aforementioned physician and neuroscientist Paul MacLean, who worked at Yale and the National Institutes of Mental Health. Together, this pair of researchers conducted seminal medial temporal lobe lesion experiments. The resulting idea was that the emotional brain is composed of a set of interconnected structures in the core of the brain. MacLean dubbed these structures as the “limbic system”. The function of the limbic system and it relationship to emotion was widely debated by many researchers.