What are different types of amygdala damage?
It is found in the limbic system of the brain and amygdala is the brain structure involved in the processing of emotional stimuli and also committed them to memory. Amygdala damage can have several different effects, including the inability to create or perform fear reactions to specific stimuli. The effects may also include reduced mothers' behavior. Risk behavior such as gambling with poor chances may also increase after damage to this area of the brain.
Amygdala normally helps the brain to encode and express the reactions of fear. After exposure to stimuli, the brain remembers these conditions and the re -discovery of the stimulus provokes a reaction of fear. Some amygdala damage will completely extinguish this reaction. An individual with this damage will not associate the reactions of fear with stimuli. Previously acquired reactions to fear will not be expressed in the presence of stimuli. Emotions than fear are mediated in this area. In the studies of wiring monkeys, the damage of amygdala has caused mothers to stop manifesting maternitybehavior. Instead, mothers in some cases attacked or abused their children. The lesions of the whole amygdala on both sides of the brain led to the Kluch Syndrome in monkeys. This disorder causes lack of aggression and fear as well as inappropriate sexual behavior.
help individuals recognize emotions is another function that can be affected by damage. People who had damage to the amygdala on both sides of the brain were unable to recognize the emotions related to the facial expressions. Occasionally, it would even confuse angry expressions with a smile. When these individuals were shown emotional expressions without faces, they were able to recognize the depicted emotions. This result shows that the brain has different centers that help individuals recognize emotions.
The loss of aversion is a term that describes the avoidance of accepting RISKS, especially if these risks do not lead to significant profit. Damage to amygdala in humans caused the inability of practicesoverstate the aversion of loss. These people tend to risk in gambling, even if they wouldn't earn a lot of money from the victory. The risk that had no potential for the individual to lose something was not affected.
Other people's detection in personal space is another function of amygdala that can be affected. When the amygdala is damaged on both sides of the brain, people do not respond to others standing in their personal space. This effect may be due to the fact that individuals do not distinguish between standing next to someone and standing from them at a certain distance.