MATH 190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Joseph E. Ledoux, Occipital Lobe, Complex Analysis
Document Summary
Ledoux: using neuroscience to help understand fear and. Fear = feelings that occur when the source of harm, the threat, is either immediate or imminent. Anxiety = feelings that occur when the source of harm is uncertain or distal in space or time. It has long been assumed that an innate fear system exists in the in mammalian brain. = in presence of a threat the same circuit control conscious feelings of fear and behavioral and physiological responses = evolutionary subcortical fear system. Amygdala as fear-circuit hub: fear said to be an innate function of subcortical brain areas, humans inherited from animals certain basic, universally expressed emotions. Apr 24th 2019: exaggerated in patients with anxiety disorders, medial cortical areas downregulate the amygdala in healthy humans weakened in people with anxiety disorders, lesions to amygdala fails to exhibit bodily reactions to threats.
