Linked Life Data

17354069

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/17354069

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-3-13
pubmed:abstractText
It has been well established that the amygdala is critical for processing various aspects of emotion, and in particular, for the perception of negative emotions such as fear. Perhaps the strongest evidence for this conclusion in humans comes from an extensive series of investigations in patient SM, an extremely rare neurological patient who has complete, focal bilateral amygdala damage. One question that has remained unanswered, however, is whether SM has a normal phenomenological experience of emotion, especially negative emotion. To explore this issue, we designed a study in which two experienced clinical psychologists conducted "blind" interviews of SM (the psychologists were not provided any background information regarding SM), with a special emphasis regarding the nature of her emotional experience. Both of them reached the conclusion that SM expressed a normal range of affect and emotion, and neither felt that SM warranted a DSM-IV diagnosis. However, they both noted that SM was remarkably dispassionate when relating highly emotional and traumatic life experiences, and they noted that she did not seem to have a normal sense of distrust and "danger". To the psychologists, SM came across as a "survivor", as being "resilient" and even "heroic" in the way that she had dealt with adversity in her life. In the full light of SM's neurological and neuropsychological profile, however, these observations reflect the fact that SM is missing from the experiences in her life some of the deepest negative emotions, in a manner that parallels her defect in perceiving such emotions in external stimuli. These findings have interesting parallels with recent animal work (cf. Bauman, Lavenex, Mason, Capitanio, & Amaral, 2004a), and they provide valuable insights into the emotional life of an individual with complete bilateral amygdala damage.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
May
pubmed:issn
1354-6805
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
11
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
219-32
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-1-16
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2006
pubmed:articleTitle
Altered experience of emotion following bilateral amygdala damage.
pubmed:affiliation
University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. daniel-tranel@uiowa.edu
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Case Reports, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural