The Amygdala is actually a structure within the brain located in the medial temporal lobe. Now what exactly this structure does is a little sketchy but from the information available, it seems to have a pretty big role in the processing of emotions.
Now when the amygdala is damaged the ability of the person to process emotions becomes somewhat hindered. Most notably the person can recognize emotions but doesn't really feel them. For example, a person can be shown pictures and classify them as pleasant or unpleasant but they have little to no reaction to the unpleasant pictures.
Now Urbach-Wiethe disease is another form of damage to the amygdala, people with this disease tend to have skin lesions and calcium deposits in the amygdala which then slowly wastes away.
Take a look at the video below to see what amygdala damage does in rats.
As you can see the rat was not afraid of the robot and just went for the food without hesitation, this kind of behavior can be observed in people with Urbach-Weithe disease as well. Also these same people have trouble recognizing fear in others, as well as drawing out a facial expression of fear. Something of note though is that these people almost exclusively look at the nose and mouth of a person, when asked to focus on the eyes they can recognize the emotion fear.
The amygdala like every other part of our body serves a function and an essential purpose for our survival, function, and basic living. I loved how you presented the information and the video did give viewers a clearer picture of what you were conveying.
ReplyDeleteReading the emotions of others is something that is very important. It lets us know when someone is scared, hurt, or happy. By knowing these emotions we know how to adjust our behaviors to them, around them, and we also learn what is socially acceptable.
Individuals with Urbach-Weithe tend to engage in a lot of risky behavior. I was reading online that it usually can diagnosed as a infant & I'm not sure sure how valid the source is, but if this is in fact true, I can imagine how that would be difficult.
Imagine: A child is doing something considered risky like sticking things in their mouth, messing with an outlet, or playing with a door. The child looks to their caregiver who is expressing their emotion of fear, possibly anger. The child not being able to read this emotion continues to play. (Keep in mind SOME kids do read your emotion but choose not to pay attention to them)
Its a watered down example but you get the idea. There is currently no cure for Urbach-Weithe and it is a rather rare condition. Even though it is rare, I would like to one day see a cure. It irks me that we are SO advanced in our technology, but still can't find cures for so many conditions and diseases.
This is so interesting and yeah I would imagine the hardship not being able to process emotions. Like Yaritza said, children who suffer from this syndrome can be very difficult and traumatic for the parents. Patients with this syndrome also engage in lots of risky behavior. This can be extremely hard for them; considering they can break their legs and not learn that whatever they did is wrong. People usually learn from hurtful experiences. Great blog and that video are very interesting! It’s also crazy to me that we are so advanced in our technology, but still can’t find any cures for so many of these diseases. Maybe, and hopefully in the future we will.
ReplyDeleteoh and by the way...i loved the star wars reference! haha
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