No brain no gain
AMYGDALA
Designer: Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kieslin | Publisher: Game Brewer
The amygdala is a small, almondshaped area of the brain (actually, two areas – you have an amygdala in either hemisphere) that, for a long time, was popularly thought of as the brain’s ‘fear centre’. A famous case study identified in research only as ‘Patient S.M.’ had no amygdalae due to a rare genetic condition, and seemed incapable of feeling fear – even when, once, she was held at gunpoint. Monkeys with one amygdala removed only responded to snakes with fear when the eye their remaining amygdala was wired to was open; when a patch was put over it, they approached, unafraid.
These days our understanding of the brain is a little more nuanced – neuroscientists shy away from thinking of particular areas of the brain as being solely responsible for one function – but the various regions of the amygdala are still associated with the business of investing sensory information with emotional meaning.