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Abstract:
The amygdala is thought to be critical for the subjective
experience of emotion, involved particularly in affective states of
fear and anxiety. However, little evidence to either contradict or
support the existence of emotional dysfunction following amygdala
damage has been gathered in humans. In a preliminary test of this
hypothesis, patients with amygdala damage and controls were
administered a brief, well-normed questionnaire (the PANAS, Watson,
Clark, & Auke, 1988) intended to assay chronic changes in the
experience of positive and negative affective states. Ten left and
ten right amygdala-damaged patients, one patient with bilateral
amygdala damage, and twenty control subjects were asked to rate the
degree to which they had experienced different states of positive
(e.g., inspired, excited) and negative (e.g., afraid, nervous)
valence over the past year. No difference in the subjective
assessment of either positive or negative affect was found between
control subjects and patients with amygdala damage. In particular,
no significant difference was found regarding descriptors related
to fear and anxiety (e.g., afraid, scared, nervous, jittery).
Further, a principal components analysis of control subject data
confirmed a two factor (positive vs. negative) description of
experienced affect. A similar solution was found in the patient
data, suggesting that the underlying structure of affective states
was intact following amygdala damage.
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