Disclaimer: English is not my native language so I will have some difficulties expressing what I mean.
Some time ago, I read an article about a woman whose amygdala on both sides of her brain was damaged due to some disease she had.
Because of that she was not able to experience fear. She could experience other emotions like sadness or joy, but not fear.
What the article didn't say was if she could experience emotions that are kind of close to fear. Like excitement. Say you were about to go bungeejumping. You know that you are going to be alright, you are not really afraid, but you do feel something. It's like a weak version of fear. (I don't know if excitement is the right word, but it's the literal translation from the word I'd use in dutch.) I hope you understand what emotion/feeling I'm talking about.
I was wondering, could you still experience that emotion when your amygdala is damaged? Or would bungeejumping become just as trivial as jumping from flat-ground?
And another emotion that I think is closely related to fear is embarrassment. Would you still be able to experience embarrassment when your amygdala is damaged?
And now for the shocking ending:
Is it possible with modern technology to shutdown your amygdala without too much risk attached to the operation? Because if the top two questions can be answered with "yes you would be able to experience excitement, but you wouldn't be able to experience embarrassment" then I would seriously consider having my amygdala shutdown.
I have never ever found that embarrassment has ever helped me become a better person. It is just a pain in the ass, nothing more. And fear has also become quite useless in modern society where we don't have to worry about predators in the jungle anymore. Today fear only inhibits me from doing stuff when my rational mind says "it's going to be fine" and my amygdala screams "Don't do it! YOU WILL DIE!!!".
article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoo...ry?id=12404875