Thursday 31 December 2009

Amygdala

Could the Feeling/Thinking and other cognitive processes be all to do with the amygdala ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala

In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdalae perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. Research indicates that, during fear conditioning, sensory stimuli reach the basolateral complexes of the amygdalae, particularly the lateral nuclei, where they form associations with memories of the stimuli.

The amygdalae also are involved in the modulation of memory consolidation. Following any learning event, the long-term memory for the event is not instantaneously formed. Rather, information regarding the event is slowly assimilated into long-term storage over time (the duration of long-term memory storage can be life-long), a process referred to as memory consolidation, until it reaches a relatively permanent state.

The amygdala processes reactions to personal space violations, and these reactions are absent in persons in whom the amygdala is damaged bilaterally.

Research using Rorschach test blot 03 finds that the number of ‘‘unique responses’’ to this random figure links to larger sized amygdalas. The researchers note, "Since previous reports have indicated that unique responses were observed at higher frequency in the artistic population than in the nonartistic normal population, this positive correlation suggests that amygdalar enlargement in the normal population might be related to creative mental activity.

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