Human Brain is Divided on Fear and Panic

Nature Neuroscience recently published an article on a study of the human brain on February 3rd, 2013. In this study, an anonymous woman in her 40s had been told to inhale a dose of panic-inducing carbon dioxide by a group of doctors at the University of Iowa. This woman had an extremely rare disease called Urbach-Wiethe disease that had caused damage to her amygdala. The amygdala is the area in the brain known for having role in fear. Because of this, she hadn't felt fear in a long time. When the woman breathed in the dose of carbon dioxide, she got the feeling she was suffocating. She began to panic, even though she couldn't feel fear.

"We were completely surprised when the patients had a panic attack," says a faculty member in the Iowa Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Scientists tested more patients with damaged amygdalas to see if the same reaction would occur. This time a dose 35 percent carbon dioxide was given to patients. Within seconds they began to show signs of panic too. They gasped for air, their heartbeat sped up, and they tried to rip their inhalation masks off.

"They were scared for their lives," says Justin Feinstein, a neuropsychologist from UI.

Feinstein gave an explanation to this saying, "Information from the outside world gets filtered through the amygdala in order to generate fear. On the other hand, signs of danger arising from inside the body can provoke a very primal form of fear, even in the absence of a functioning amygdala."

After more experimenting and research, UI doctors concluded that panic in humans is not produced from the amygdala, but from somewhere else. If fundamental survival is endangered, other places like the brainstem, diencephalon, or insular cortex in the human brain could be able to sense the body's threat signals. If the actual place that panic is produced was found, then ways to treat panic attacks, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and other anxiety-related illnesses could be found.


NOS Themes:

• Role of motivation and curiosity: If scientists could use this information to find a cure for anxiety-related illnesses, patients across the world suffering from these illnesses could be cured.
• Importance of  repeatability: The doctors at UI gave the doses of carbon dioxide to many different patients with damaged amygdalas.
• Role of Chance: The UI doctors tested other patients to make sure the panic attack from the 40-year-old woman wasn't just an accidentally stumbled on phenomenon.

Article Website: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2013/02/04/human_brain_is_divided_on_fear_and_panic.html

Related Links:
http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-panic-disorder
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1749


Crystal Chang
Hour 3