Fear And The Amygdala Psychology
Fear and the Amygdala
Ashley Foster
Psychology 201: Introduction to Psychology
Fear is often described as: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain whether the threat is real or imagined. There are many different cases of fear that exist in people today. Some common fears include: heights, tight spaces, water, insects, and the dark. Many people do not understand why they hold a fear towards something. However, if one understood a little more about the brain, then perhaps there would be a better understanding of fear all together. The purpose of this paper is to help others have a better understanding how the brain is linked to their own specific …show more content…
Animal studies form a better consensus about the direction of asymmetric activation within the amygdala. It was through the investigation of animals that revealed that the right, but not the left, amygdala stores memory for unpleasant learning events involving fear (Baker & Kim, 2004; Coleman-Mesches, Salinas, & McGaugh, 1996). Learning conditions that involve fear or unpleasant stimuli cause asymmetric patterns of activation of molecular markers throughout the amygdaloid nucleus. Researchers tend to choose animals when studying the amygdala because it is a safer and cheaper way to do so. It is also easier to create different scenarios in which the animals have to react to, thus making it possible to study the different types of reactions of fear (Erica J. Young and Cedric L. …show more content…
One may wonder why it would be important to know about people and their reactions, however, many things such as communication could be made better throughout the world today. For example, when people are communicating with each other, there tend to be a lot of facial expressions that are involved within a conversation. It was predicted by Karim N’Diaye, David Sander, and Patrik Vuilleumier that “perceived self-relevance of fearful faces would be higher with averted gaze--signaling nearby danger; whereas conversely, direct gaze would be more relevant for angry faces--signaling aggressiveness”. They observed these behavioral patterns for emotional intensity ratings, as well as for functional magnetic character imaging activation in the amygdala. The results of their studies support the human amygdala in the review of self-relevance and reveal how important the role of expression really
Ashley Foster
Psychology 201: Introduction to Psychology
Fear is often described as: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain whether the threat is real or imagined. There are many different cases of fear that exist in people today. Some common fears include: heights, tight spaces, water, insects, and the dark. Many people do not understand why they hold a fear towards something. However, if one understood a little more about the brain, then perhaps there would be a better understanding of fear all together. The purpose of this paper is to help others have a better understanding how the brain is linked to their own specific …show more content…
Animal studies form a better consensus about the direction of asymmetric activation within the amygdala. It was through the investigation of animals that revealed that the right, but not the left, amygdala stores memory for unpleasant learning events involving fear (Baker & Kim, 2004; Coleman-Mesches, Salinas, & McGaugh, 1996). Learning conditions that involve fear or unpleasant stimuli cause asymmetric patterns of activation of molecular markers throughout the amygdaloid nucleus. Researchers tend to choose animals when studying the amygdala because it is a safer and cheaper way to do so. It is also easier to create different scenarios in which the animals have to react to, thus making it possible to study the different types of reactions of fear (Erica J. Young and Cedric L. …show more content…
One may wonder why it would be important to know about people and their reactions, however, many things such as communication could be made better throughout the world today. For example, when people are communicating with each other, there tend to be a lot of facial expressions that are involved within a conversation. It was predicted by Karim N’Diaye, David Sander, and Patrik Vuilleumier that “perceived self-relevance of fearful faces would be higher with averted gaze--signaling nearby danger; whereas conversely, direct gaze would be more relevant for angry faces--signaling aggressiveness”. They observed these behavioral patterns for emotional intensity ratings, as well as for functional magnetic character imaging activation in the amygdala. The results of their studies support the human amygdala in the review of self-relevance and reveal how important the role of expression really