Woman with no fear may hold cure to PTSD
The Universities of California Los Angeles, Iowa, and California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have recently been studying a woman who is incapable of experiencing fear.
The hope in the study is to determine how to help those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as well as other anxiety disorders. Their studies focused on how the brain interprets signals of fear and how the body reacts in those situations.
Justin Feinstein, a PhD student at the University of Iowa says that our brains are constantly interpreting all the information to determine how to react to any situation. The concept of fear is a built in survival mechanism to protect the brain and body.
The amygdala is a small portion of the brain that helps with the fear response a body goes through. Animal based studies have shown that the amygdala is also responsible for how one reacts to fearful situations as well as conditions one to be afraid of certain situations or areas. However, animal based studies had never given scientists with the information they required with how a person emotionally deals with fear.
The woman in the study did not have her amygdala operating due to a rare medical condition. After conducting a full battery of IQ and personality tests it was deemed she reacted normally in all situations except for fearful situations. Thanks to this study more information is now known in relation to the amygdala and its effect of the emotion known as fear.
The experiments consisted of exposing the woman to a series of scary situations as well as maintaining a diary of her experiences for a three month time period. The woman never registered any situation as fearful. Based off the studies, researchers now believe that they may be able to help those suffering from post traumatic stress by turning off sections of the amygdala in the brain.
If scientists are able to turn off a portion of the brain many will be able to live their lives again. Being that the amygdala controls fear conditioning, those suffering from PTSD can be triggered by certain environments or situations and believe they are back in a previous situation that originally caused them fear. If the brain can no longer relay these previous signals of fear to the individual the loop will be broken and the person can move on with their life.
Researchers also believe that with further research they may be able to ident others who may be susceptible to anxiety related disorders, thus treating the situation before it turns into a full blown disorder.
Justin Feinstein, a PhD student at the University of Iowa says that our brains are constantly interpreting all the information to determine how to react to any situation. The concept of fear is a built in survival mechanism to protect the brain and body.
The amygdala is a small portion of the brain that helps with the fear response a body goes through. Animal based studies have shown that the amygdala is also responsible for how one reacts to fearful situations as well as conditions one to be afraid of certain situations or areas. However, animal based studies had never given scientists with the information they required with how a person emotionally deals with fear.
The woman in the study did not have her amygdala operating due to a rare medical condition. After conducting a full battery of IQ and personality tests it was deemed she reacted normally in all situations except for fearful situations. Thanks to this study more information is now known in relation to the amygdala and its effect of the emotion known as fear.
The experiments consisted of exposing the woman to a series of scary situations as well as maintaining a diary of her experiences for a three month time period. The woman never registered any situation as fearful. Based off the studies, researchers now believe that they may be able to help those suffering from post traumatic stress by turning off sections of the amygdala in the brain.
If scientists are able to turn off a portion of the brain many will be able to live their lives again. Being that the amygdala controls fear conditioning, those suffering from PTSD can be triggered by certain environments or situations and believe they are back in a previous situation that originally caused them fear. If the brain can no longer relay these previous signals of fear to the individual the loop will be broken and the person can move on with their life.
Researchers also believe that with further research they may be able to ident others who may be susceptible to anxiety related disorders, thus treating the situation before it turns into a full blown disorder.
