Arachnophobia is a very common problem, and there are many other types of phobias in the world. It used to be that fear could only be treated through therapy, but a situation in the UK has proved that fear can be physically cured. A man in the UK was diagnosed with an anomaly in his left amygdala and had to be operated on in order to remove the damaged amygdala. After the surgery, the man found that he had an aversion to music, and his arachnophobia was completely gone. The aversion to music eventually faded, but the arachnophobia never came back. Doctors are not sure how this happened, but they believe that some of the neural pathways related to panic-type fear may have been removed with the amygdala. This shows that other phobias may also be cured, but for now, this cannot be done without invasive techniques. However, there are other fear-reducing techniques being tested right now, and with this case, they might have a promising future.
More information can be found here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26483-arachnophobia-chopped-out-of-a-mans-brain.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNSNS%7C2012-GLOBAL%7Conline-news#.VFQA3vl4pcR
This reminds me of psychology class when Ms. Durbec said that there were doctors in the past who believed mental disorders were located in certain parts of the body. In order to get rid of the mental disorders, that certain part of the body needed to be cut.
ReplyDeleteI am very intrigued by this advancement. I wonder what other parts of our personalities can be surgically altered? Advancements like these are what separates science from any other field. It would be very interesting to see what exactly it was that they altered to disperse with this patient's phobia.
ReplyDeleteWas this man's personality shift completely accidental? This reminds me of an article I had read about an American lady who had undergone a dental procedure and woke up with a British Accent!
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