Scientists Study Woman With No Fears

[Jazzy]

Is there anything you're not afraid of? Imagine what it must be like to never experience fear of any kind.



A woman with a rare genetic disorder, Urbach-Wiethe disease, isn't frightened by anything – haunted houses, spiders, snakes, movie monsters, death threats, being attacked or robbed, the Live Science website reports.



Researchers at the University of Iowa have done their best to scare the 44-year-old woman, identified only as SM for confidentiality reasons.



Writing in the journal Current Biology, study co-author Justin Feinstein indicates that SM's Urbach-Wiethe condition has damaged her amygdala, an almond-shaped portion of the brain that may be connected with abnormal fear reactions and a reduced experience of fear.

We conducted a new study in a rare human patient, SM, who has focal bilateral amygdala lesions, Feinstein and his colleagues wrote.



To provoke fear in SM, we exposed her to live snakes and spiders, took her on a tour of a haunted house, and showed her emotionally evocative films.



Past research has suggested that the amygdala is strongly linked to how animals respond to fear. And the study with SM shows signs that the amygdala may control the fear factor in humans.



Full story: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/19/scientists-study-woman-with-no-fears/

 

[DrLeftover]

I've known men who drink two beers and decide they can whip an entire motorcycle gang in a bar fight.



Must be the same sort of condition.

 

[Durandal]

I've known men who drink two beers and decide they can whip an entire motorcycle gang in a bar fight.



Must be the same sort of condition.

Kind of, but not quite. Alcohol 'paralyses' sections of the brain from the front to the back. The amygdala is in the middle, roughly, so if you drink enough, your higher judgment is impaired, and eventually your ability to sense pain and fear follows after that, all the while the more primal parts of the brain act up to help you 'survive', thus you can be more prone to violence.



As Humankind was smart enough to realise a one-on-one wrestling match with a Sabretooth Tiger was not a good idea, we learned the 'run to fight another day' option was a good one. Alcohol throws that out the window, thus resulting in Bikers unleashing whoop-ass.

 

[Evil Eye]

I bet those scientists had a lot of fun with masks and what not

 

[Ashley]

I bet those scientists had a lot of fun with masks and what not

That would be kind of fun doing those kinds of tests on someone. I don't know if I would like showing those movies or doing the haunted house thing. Those kinds of things scare me way too much. It'd be nice to not be afraid of anything, though. Despite the fact that this is a disease, I kind of envy this woman a little bit.

 

[Jazzy]

Bet if you put this woman in a room with

she'd freak out and run for her life!

 

[The Dragon Master]

I'm fearless

 

[Durandal]

One thing I have to wonder is if she also lacks sympathetic/emphatic fear, like fear for someone else, or because someone else is afraid, but not actually afraid of the causes of the third-party fear. Like the woman has children, so does she fear for her children if they are in a dangerous situation?

 

[Ashley]

One thing I have to wonder is if she also lacks sympathetic/emphatic fear, like fear for someone else, or because someone else is afraid, but not actually afraid of the causes of the third-party fear. Like the woman has children, so does she fear for her children if they are in a dangerous situation?

Well, they say she isn't afraid of anything, so it's really hard to say. I would think that as a mother she would have some fear for her children if they were in a dangerous situation, but you never know, though.