Quotes About Amygdala

In order for extinction to reduce the ability of a Pavlovian CS to elicit defense responses, the amygdala's control over these responses has to be changed. Key to this process is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFCVM) and its ability to regulate the amygdala-housed circuits that store the CS-US memory, which when activated results in the expression of defense responses. The

Morgan then examined the effects of PFCVM lesions in rats and found that, again, the animals could not stop freezing in response to the CS. It was as if removal of PFCVM influences resulted in an out-of-control amygdala, one that responded to stimuli that were, objectively speaking, no longer threatening. This immediately suggested that the type of unregulated fear and anxiety that occurs in people with anxiety disorders might involve some dysregulation of prefrontal-amygdala circuits. It

A major way that threats change arousal is via outputs of the CeA to neuromodulatory systems (Figure 8.7).73 (By the way, the amygdala also processes appetitive stimuli and the CeA also activates neuromodulatory systems in their presence74). The consequence of CeA activation of neuromodulatory systems is an increase in attention and vigilance, which may be achieved by lowering the threshold to detect sensory stimuli.

the amygdala itself is a recipient of neuromodulatory inputs means that its processing is also boosted during arousal. As the amygdala drives arousal and arousal in turn drives the amygdala, a self-sustaining reentrant loop is engaged that helps keep the brain and body revved up as long as the threat remains.75

Like all forms of learning,29 extinction requires the synthesis of proteins in neurons that are learning and storing the new information. In this case, protein synthesis is required in both the infralimbic cortex30 and the amygdala31 for the effects of extinction to persist as a long-term memory.

Deep belly breathing is one of the most commonly recommended on-the-spot practices to calm your nervous system and, thus, anxiety. The reason for this is that when you breathe deeply, pushing your belly out all the way like a balloon, your vagus nerve is activated in such a way that it calms your amygdala, the emotional response center deep within your brain.

When that person is emotionally unavailable or unresponsive, we face being out in the cold, alone and helpless. We are assailed by emotions — anger, sadness, hurt, and above all, fear. This is not so surprising when we remember that fear is our built-in alarm system; it turns on when our survival is threatened. Losing connection with our loved one jeopardizes our sense of security. The alarm goes off in the brain's amygdala, or Fear Central

The amygdala grows particularly lively when we are asleep, and thus may account for why our dreams are so often disturbing. Your nightmares may simply be the amygdalae unburdening themselves.*2

The "Intense World" paper proposed that if the amygdala, which is associated with emotional responses, including fear, is affected by sensory overload, then certain responses that look antisocial actually aren't.

As with clicker-trained animals, deliberate use of intimidation almost certainly moves your learner off the SEEKING circuit and onto the conditioned fear path in the amygdala. You may get compliance, but learning slows way down.

The amygdala is indeed crucial for monitoring our environment and deciding what's worth getting worked up over. Once the amygdala determines this, however, it merely trips another circuit to actually produce the panic.

people with a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder tend to have a larger amygdala, which is linked to paying greater attention to threatening or fearful stimuli.

When the amygdala heats up with intense activity, emotionally loaded thoughts loom larger in our field of attention.

If the amygdala recognizes an emotionally potent stimulus similar to something we reacted strongly to in the past, it unleashes a flood of emotion and a fitting action.

Bad news sells because the amygdala is always looking for something to fear.

The amygdala is like a point guard in the emotional part of your middle brain. When it is overwhelmed, it hijacks you away from being able to access your upper rational brain and think and assess what to do. It essentially disables your ability to think.

the workings of the amygdala and its interplay with the neocortex are at the heart of emotional intelligence.

The hippocampus is crucial in recognizing a face as that of your cousin. But it is the amygdala that adds you don't really like her.

His research has shown that sensory signals from eye or ear travel first in the brain to the thalamus, and then—across a single synapse—to the amygdala; a second signal from the thalamus is routed to the neocortex—the thinking brain.

Silence is another barometer of timidity. A timid silence in the face of novelty or a perceived threat is a sign of the activity of a neural circuit running between the forebrain, the amygdala, and nearby limbic structures that control the ability to vocalize. These same circuits make us choke up under stress. These sensitive children are at high risk for developing an anxiety disorder such as panic attacks, starting as early as sixth or seventh grade.

The brain of a person in love will show activity in the amygdala, which is associated with gut feelings, and in the nucleus accumbens, an area associated with rewarding stimuli that tends to be active in drug abusers. Or, to recap: the brain of a person in love doesn't look like the brain of someone overcome by deep emotion. It looks like the brain of a person who's been snorting coke.

It is noteworthy, however, that this areas also contains neurons which when stimulated can trigger female sexual posturing (Benson, 1988; Rose, 1990); i.e. the lordosis (or doggie) position. These latter neurons are interconnected with the amygdala and ventromedial hypothalamus--nuclei

Becoming familiar with your amygdala and the kinds of things it reacts to in life is an important part of learning to regulate your own stress and manage your tendencies to approach and avoid things in your life, including your children.

The moment you're part of a group, the amygdala tunes in to who's in that group and starts intensely tracking them. Because these people are valuable to you. They were strangers before, but they're on your team now, and that changes the whole dynamic. It's such a powerful switch—it's a big top-down change, a total reconfiguration of the entire motivational and decision-making system.