Some scientists in Iowa looking to determine which part of the brain is responsible for our anxieties and fears have reportedly shown that this is thetonsil, area of the brain located in the anterointernal region of the temporal lobe. The study published Thursday in the American journal Current Biology is based on a 40-year-old woman whose amygdala was destroyed by a rare disease.
This woman claims to no longer feel any fear and no longer reads fear on other people’s faces.
So far, only studies in rats and monkeys have shown that the amygdala plays a central role in fear reactions.
This discovery is extremely important, if we note that more than 7 million Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder according to the National Institute of Mental Health. This syndrome is an anxiety disorder that occurs after a hard experience, especially when the survival of the individual is at stake. In 2008, a study by the Rand Corporation estimated that more than 300,000 soldiers were returning from the fighting in Iraq in suffering from this syndrome.
This study will therefore pave the way for new treatments, testifies to the professor of neurology and psychology Danien Tranel, main author of the study. The latter explained to AFP: “The work published Thursday shows that specific areas of the brain may well be responsible for post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychotherapy and drugs are the current options to treat it and these treatments could thus be adjusted or newly developed by targeting the amygdala “.
