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Dissociation of affective modulation of recollective and perceptual experience following amygdala damage
  1. B P Papps1,
  2. A J Calder2,
  3. A W Young3,
  4. R E O’Carroll4
  1. 1Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
  2. 2MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
  3. 3Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
  4. 4School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
    Professor Ronan O’Carroll, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU, Scotland, UK;
    ronan{at}st-and.ac.uk

Abstract

It has been suggested that similar neural mechanisms may underlie the affective modulation of both recollective and perceptual experience. A case is reported of a patient who has bilateral amygdala damage and marked impairment in the perception of emotion, particularly fear. The patient DR and 10 healthy control subjects (matched for school leaving age, intelligence quotient, and non-emotional memory performance) were shown a series of slides accompanied by an emotionally arousing narrative. One week later DR and the controls were given a surprise memory test for this material. In addition, they completed a verbal memory test using emotionally arousing stimuli. Both DR and the healthy control subjects showed a normative pattern of enhanced memory for emotional material. On the basis of these results and the previously demonstrated impairment of perception of emotion in this patient, it is concluded that different neural mechanisms may underlie affective modulation of recollective and perceptual experience.

  • amygdala
  • affect
  • AAVLT, affective auditory verbal learning test
  • CVLT, California verbal learning test

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