The Role of the Amygdala in Fear and Panic Essay -- Biology Essays Res

The Role of the amygdala in Fear and PanicThe definition of fear has proved to be an elusive mystery plaguing scientists. While there is much agreement as to the physiologic effects of fear, the neural pathways and connections that bring upon these effects ar not well understood. From the evolutionary standpoint, the theory is that fear is a neural move that has been designed to keep the organism alive in dangerous situations (1). How does it whole work? Learning and responding to stimuli that warn of danger involves neural pathways that send training about the outside world to the amygdala, which in turn, determines the signifi mountaince of the stimulus and triggers delirious responses like freezing or fleeing as well as changes in the inner workings of the bodys organs and glands (1). There are important distinctions to set about between emotions and feelings. Feelings are red herrings, products of the conscious mind, labels given to unconscious emotions (2) whereas emotion s are distinct patterns of behaviors of neurons. Emotions can exist of conscious experiencesas well as physiological and neurological reactions and voluntary and involuntary behaviors (3). But the components of fear goes beyond feelings and emotions. It is similarly the specific memory of the emotion. After a frightful experience, one can cogitate the logical reasons for the experience (e.g. the time and place) but one lead also feel the memory, and his body will react as such(prenominal) (i.e. increased heart and respiration rate, sweating). In one recent case, after(prenominal) a near drowining incident, the victim could not only vividly remember each detail, but when doing so, his body reacted as though he were know the experience. These feelings of memory are stored in an ... ... of being harmed at this particular moment. The terce emotions can diffuse into one single diffuse state (5). mesh SourcesIsaacson, Robert. The Limbic System. Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1982 Tho mpson, Jack George. The Psychobiology of Emotions. Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1988 http//academic.uofs.edu/department/neuro/fear.htmlVan Goozen, Stephanie H. M. (ed.). Emotions Essays on Emotion Theory. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Hillsdale, N.J., 1994 Kavanaugh, Robert. Emotion Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Hillsdale, N.J., 1996 Muller, Jeff, Functional Inactivation of the Lateral and immoral Nuclei of the Amygdala by Muscimol Infusion Prevents Fear Conditioning to an Explicit well-educated Stimulus and to Contextual Stimuli. Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 111, No. 4, pp. 683-691, 1997