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Abstract:
Patient JC, a 26 year old woman, presented with intractable
Epilepsy. Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging revealed a tumor
confined to the left amygdala. A battery of neuropsychological
tests was administered pre and post temporal lobectomy surgery,
which was designed to reveal hypothetical and potential deficits of
amygdala function. We compared JC's results on all test items with
norms obtained from healthy volunteers. We tested facial expression
naming and matching, identification of emotional sounds, emotional
enhancement of episodic memory, and the startle reflex. The results
showed that JC was poorer than controls at recognising specific
facial expressions, namely disgust, and was poor at matching other
expressions, including fear, as found in previous studies. Post-op
results also revealed a deficit in aural fear recognition. JC was
observed to perform within the normal range on corresponding non
emotional control tests. Results from two tests of emotional memory
revealed, in contrast to normal control's performance, a predicted
deficit in enhanced memory for emotional material. JC also revealed
a reduced startle reflex. These results demonstrate selective
difficulties, which could be attributed to amygdala
damage/removal.
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