River's silly Amygdala by RonaldRaygun

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River's silly Amygdala

POSTED BY: RONALDRAYGUN
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 03:35
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Monday, January 12, 2004 11:15 PM

I work in the neuroscience field and was interested that a brain structure was brought up as a plot point in the Ariel episode. It had been a while since I last studied up on the anatomy and physiology of the brain so I ended up getting out my neuroanatomy text book to see how accurate Simon's description was.

His description was fairly close however some interesting facts were left out. First, rather than suppressing emotions the Amygdala allows certain emotions to surface. One of which is fear. People with injury to or resection of the Amygdala lose much of the ability to recognize external cues that would tell a normal person to be fearful. Another example, if Simon began yelling at River in anger she would likely not recognize that Simon is angry. The Amygdala is also a possible culprit in some mental health disorders such as anxiety and compulsive disorders. It's also possible that phobias arise from here.

Not sure where Joss was going with the Amygdala but hopefully we'll find out some day.

You look good in red.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2004 3:35 AM

IRISANNE

This is really interesting. I'm thinking about a couple of scenes where River does react with a lack of fear, and how powerful they are. Like that scene (oops, spoiler) where she and Simon are clinging to the outside of the you-know-what and Simon is practically having a panic attack and her face is full of joy.

Also, you put your finger on it when you point out that she wouldn't be able to interpret Simon's anger. Most of the time she does have that flat no-reaction to other people's emotions. It works so well dramatically, and it's interesting to know it's pretty accurate medically, as well.

Does the amygdala have anything to do with autism, I wonder? Sometimes she seems almost autistic.

I'm rambling away here. As you can tell, I'm clueless about this stuff. Thanks for this nice clear info about what that scene in Ariel meant.

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