The Briefing Room

General Category => Health/Education => Topic started by: rangerrebew on August 21, 2018, 03:51:09 pm

Title: 'It's all in the eyes': The role of the amygdala in the experience and perception of fear
Post by: rangerrebew on August 21, 2018, 03:51:09 pm

'It's all in the eyes': The role of the amygdala in the experience and perception of fear
August 21, 2018, Massachusetts General Hospital


Researchers have long believed that the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the brain, is central to the experience and perception of fear. Studies initiated in the 1990s of a patient with a rare condition affecting the amygdala initially seemed to support this conclusion. However, as Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry writes in a new paper, the role of the amygdala has turned out to be more complex than originally thought. Barrett, a research scientist at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at MGH and a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, was invited to write the paper for the 40th anniversary issue of the journal Trends in Neurosciences.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-08-eyes-role-amygdala-perception.html