Amygdala and its functions

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure located deep in the temporal

lobe of the brain. It is part of the limbic system and is made up of over a dozen
different nuclei, which are clusters of neurons with specialized functions.
The amygdala sits in front of the hippocampus and has connections to brain
regions involved in sensory perception, emotion, and memory. Its strategic
location and connectivity allow it to process emotions and trigger reactions to
environmental stimuli.
The amygdala is primarily involved in the processing of emotions and
memories associated with fear. The amygdala is part of the limbic system within
the brain and is key to how we process strong emotions like fear or pleasure.
As the amygdala has connections to many other brain structures, this means it can
link to areas in order to process ‘higher’ cognitive information with systems that
control ‘lower’ functions (such as autonomic responses like breathing, touch, and
sensitivity). This allows the amygdala to organize physiological responses based
on the cognitive information available. The most well-known example of this is
the fight-or-flight response.
 Amygdala’s Connections And Neuronal Circuits
The amygdala has widespread connections to various parts of the brain,
allowing it to receive sensory information and influence responses. Its key
connections include:
• Input from the sensory thalamus and sensory cortices (visual, auditory,
somatosensory) – provides sensory information to the amygdala.
• Output to the hypothalamus and brainstem – allows emotional responses like
fear and aggression.
• Bidirectional connections with the prefrontal cortex – integrates emotions,
cognition, and decision-making.
• Bidirectional connections with the hippocampus – links emotions to
memories.
• Output to the nucleus accumbens and ventral striatum – involved in reward
processing.

There are two amygdalae in each hemisphere of the brain, and there are three
known functionally distinct parts:
1. The medial (middle) group of subnuclei has many connections with the
olfactory bulb and cortex (related to olfactory functions or sense of smell). It
also connects with the hypothalamus for social and reproductive behaviors.
2. The basolateral group (basolateral meaning below and to the side) has several
connections with the cerebral cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex within
the frontal lobes. This allows it to link sensory stimuli with emotional
responses and memory formation.
3. The central and anterior (front) group of nuclei has many connections with the
brain stem, hypothalamus, and sensory structures. It initiates physiological
fear responses through these pathways.
 Functions of Amygdala
The main function of the amygdala is in emotional responses, including
feelings of happiness, fear, anger, and anxiety. It also plays a big role in the
formation of memories associated with emotional responses.
Emotion Learning: The amygdala plays a distinctive role in mediating
many aspects of emotional learning as well as emotional behavior. An emotion
the amygdala is particularly responsible for is controlling fear. Using Pavlovian
conditioning can cause something called fear conditioning to occur. This is when
an otherwise neutral stimulus is paired with an innately aversive unconditioned
stimulus. For example, producing a loud banging noise (aversive stimulus) each
time a person is shown an image of a particular stranger’s face (neutral stimulus).
After repeated pairing of these two stimuli, the neurons within the amygdala will
be conditioned to the change in stimuli, reflecting a conditioned fear response.
Therefore, we may expect that the person in the example would then become
fearful of the stranger in the image due to being conditioned to be fearful.
Literature supports the view that the amygdala has an influence on cognitive
processes such as memory formation, decision-making, attention, and social
behavior. It can be assumed that this is due to the amygdala projecting
information to the prefrontal and sensory cortices, as well as the hippocampus.
Thus, the amygdala can attribute emotions to these cognitive processes. For
instance, we may make a decision that is based on our own personal emotions, or
we may pay more attention to something if we believe it will make us feel positive
emotions toward it.
Memory Formation: An area in which the amygdala is most prominent is
the formation of memories, especially those that are emotional. As the amygdala
is remarkably close to, and forms connections with the hippocampus (a memory
structure of the brain), these two often work together to make memories more
memorable. The amygdala can attribute emotions to memories. Essentially, the
more emotive the memory, the more likely it is to be remembered. For instance,
the birth of a child is typically a highly emotive positive memory, as it is likely
to be retained. Some emotional memories can be permanent, whereas those
memories that are mundane, having little to no emotional attachment, are often
forgotten. The amygdala acts as a store for good and bad memories, but especially
for emotional traumas. This is when the amygdala can be detrimental as these
traumas will be especially difficult to overcome due to it being a highly emotional
memory. Individuals who have experienced emotional trauma may also find that
their trauma can affect other cognitive functions as a result of the amygdala being
connected to many other regions of the brain. Emotional memories are believed
to be stored in the synapses of the neurons within the brain. There is evidence that
suggests that multiple neuromodulators in the amygdala regulate the formation of
emotional memories. Fear memories are thought to be embedded within the
neuronal connections of the amygdala.
Aggression: The amygdala is the most important part of the limbic system
for many emotions, including aggression. The reactivity of the amygdala is a
good predictor of aggression. Groves and Schlesinger (1982) found that surgical
removal of the amygdala reduces aggression in previously violent individuals. In
animal studies, stimulation of the amygdala produces aggressive behavior.
Removal of the amygdala from monkeys, rats, and humans reduces aggression.
Fear: The amygdala’s role in psychopathy has been a major topic of study
in neuroscience for many years. Historically, the amygdala was believed to be the
“fear center” of the brain, responsible for experiences and behaviors related to
fear. This belief was based on evidence from animal studies, studies of
individuals with amygdala damage, and neuroimaging studies on healthy
individuals. Early theories linked psychopathy to a dysfunctional amygdala that
resulted in reduced fear responses and impairments in associating actions with
potential threats or punishments. However, newer research challenges the idea
that the amygdala solely functions as a “fear center.” Some studies suggest that
the amygdala may not be essential for the subjective experience of fear in humans.
Recent views propose that the amygdala is part of a larger network responsible
for regulating bodily processes and representing affective states rather than
specific emotions. The current understanding of the amygdala’s function in
psychopathy is not clear-cut. Neuroimaging studies have reported varied results:
some found a negative association between amygdala activity and psychopathy,
while others found a positive or no association.
What Does The Research Say?
Many neuroimaging studies have investigated the structural and functional
connectivity of the amygdala.
Social Behavior: Regarding social behavior, the basolateral part of the
amygdala, which sends signals to the hippocampus, has shown it is able to
modulate social behaviors in a bidirectional manner. The volume of the amygdala
has also been shown to positively correlate to the number of social contacts and
the number of social groups a person belongs to. Essentially, the more friends and
friend groups someone has, the bigger their amygdala.
 Sexual orientation: Sexual orientation has been suggested to be linked to
structural differences in the amygdala. Homosexual males tend to show patterns
in their amygdala similar to those of heterosexual females. These two groups tend
to have more widespread connections in their left amygdala. Likewise,
homosexual females tend to show patterns alike to heterosexual men and have
more widespread right amygdala connections.
Stress: Studies suggest that acute and chronic stressors are strongly
associated with neuronal activity within the amygdala. Similarly, synaptic
plasticity (the ability for synapses to strengthen or weaken over time) within the
amygdala is implied to be affected by exposure to stress.
Mental health disorders: Various research has shown that the amygdala,
especially on the left side, is associated with mental health conditions such
as social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety
disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. People who have a severe case of
social phobia show significant correlations with increased amygdala response.
Also, those who have more neural pathways from their amygdala to their
prefrontal cortex are more likely to experience nervousness and anxiety as these
pathways allow the frontal cortex to be flooded with more alerts of threats from
their amygdala. Amygdala dysfunction may be associated with memory
impairment in schizophrenia. Increased activity in the left amygdala was found
to be negatively correlated with performance on an immediate memory task. This
links abnormal amygdala function to memory deficits in schizophrenia.
Individuals who are diagnosed with depression have been shown to have
hyperactivity in their left amygdala, especially when interpreting emotions from
faces, mainly fearful faces. Similar findings were discovered in another study
with those who had PTSD. When they were shown pictures of faces with fearful
expressions, their amygdalae tended to display high activation. In bipolar
disorder, however, a study found that these individuals had substantially smaller
amygdala volumes than those without bipolar disorder.
Addiction: In terms of addiction, the basolateral amygdala has shown
involvement in people relapsing when it comes to drugs. Particularly, the
amygdala integrates the influences of stress on drug-related memory. The
amygdala has also been shown to be influential when it comes to internet
addiction. It was found that the functional connectivity between the amygdala and
the prefrontal cortex was altered in those with internet addiction, concluding that
this type of addiction may be associated with emotional disturbances and with the
processing of emotions.
 Breathing regulation: New research has found that the amygdala plays a
key role in breathing regulation and post-seizure apnea. The research found that
seizures spreading to the amygdala can cause apnea during and after seizures.
Stimulating a specific region of the amygdala could also induce prolonged apnea
that persists after stimulation ends. This suggests the amygdala is critically
involved in seizure-related breathing issues.
Amygdala Hijack: The amygdala can be stimulated when faced with a
perceived threat. If in a threatening situation, the amygdala will send information
to other parts of the brain to prepare the body to either face the situation or to get
away from it. This fight-or-flight response is triggered by emotions of
fear, anxiety, aggression, and anger. It is beneficial that the amygdala is working
correctly in order to act appropriately in threatening or stressful situations.
However, sometimes, the amygdala can act too strongly, leading to amygdala
hijacking. Typically, in a stressful situation, the frontal lobes will step in to
override the amygdala to ensure we respond rationally. But, if the stressful
situation causes strong feelings of anxiety, anger, aggression, or fear, this can
result in illogical and irrational overreactive behaviors being displayed.
Essentially, the amygdala overrides the frontal lobes to hijack stress response
control.

What Happens If The Amygdala Is Damaged?

If there are damages or differences in amygdala structure and function, one may
experience one or more of the following symptoms:
• Difficulties with forming memories, especially those which would be
emotional memories, due to the amygdala and hippocampus being connected.
• Overactive fear response or hypervigilance leads to interpreting many
situations as threats and losing control over physical responses.
• Emotional sensitivity.
• Feeling anxious if there is hyperactivity of the amygdala or feeling little or no
anxiety if the amygdala is underactive.
• Overly aggressive if there is hyperactivity of the amygdala.
• Feeling over irritable if there is hyperactivity of the amygdala.
• Deficits in recognizing emotions (especially fear) if the amygdala is damaged
or underactive.
 Impaired fear response: If the amygdala is damaged or not fully functioning,
this can impair the acquisition and expression of fear learning. They may not learn
from the Pavlovian form of classical conditioning as a result. This suggests they
are less susceptible to forming phobias and less likely to be an anxious person;
however, they may not have a natural aversion to risk, and this can, therefore,
impair their ability to make safe decisions.

Managing damaged amygdala

While there is no way to treat a damaged amygdala directly, psychotherapy
approaches can help manage some of the resulting symptoms.
Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on identifying maladaptive thought
and behavior patterns and learning new coping strategies. This can help reduce
anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation.
Exposure therapy slowly exposes a person to feared stimuli in a safe
environment to help overcome phobias or overreactions.
Social skills training improves communication and relationship abilities
impacted by amygdala damage.
Emotion regulation techniques teach how to monitor emotional responses
and employ strategies like mindfulness or relaxation to maintain control.
Psychotherapy equips patients with skills to better manage their lives despite
changes in emotional processing due to amygdala damage.
Medications may also be used to treat specific symptoms like anxiety,
aggression, or depression that can occur. Deep brain stimulation shows early
promise in modulating amygdala hyperactivity, but more research is needed.

Hippocampus vs amygdala: what is the difference?

The hippocampus and amygdala are neighboring structures in the temporal
lobe that play different roles in memory and emotion. The hippocampus encodes
memories, linking events to their context. The amygdala detects threats, triggers
fear responses, and attaches emotional significance to memories. While the
hippocampus stores factual memories, the amygdala determines their emotional
value. Together, they enable memories to contain both contextual details
(hippocampus) and emotional associations (amygdala).
 How does the amygdala process fear?
When we perceive a potential threat, sensory information is sent to the
amygdala. The amygdala acts as an emotional sentinel, evaluating stimuli for
signs of danger. If a threat is detected, the amygdala triggers the fight-or-flight
response through connections with the hypothalamus and brainstem. It also
signals the hippocampus to store emotional memories about the fearful event.
Through these pathways, the amygdala elicits immediate fear reactions and
encodes fearful memories so we can recognize and respond to similar threats in
the future.

When we perceive something threatening, the thalamus sends sensory

information to the amygdala, which triggers a fear response. The amygdala
activates the sympathetic nervous system, initiating our fight-or-flight reaction.
It also signals the hippocampus to store memories of the fearful event so we can
avoid similar threats in the future.