Is an amygdala necessary to experience and perceive fear? One potential mechanism for not perceiving fear is a failure to spontaneously attend to widened eyes, the most distinctive physical feature portrayed in symbolic fear expressions

Seeing Fear: It’s All in the Eyes? Lisa Feldman Barrett. Trends in Neurosciences, Volume 41, Issue 9, September 2018, Pages 559-563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2018.06.009

Abstract: Is an amygdala necessary to experience and perceive fear? Intriguing evidence comes from patient S.M. who lost her left and right amygdalae to disease. Initial testing suggested that S.M.’s most defining symptom was an inability to recognize fear in other people’s facial expressions. A fascinating paper by Adolphs and colleagues in 2005 examined one potential mechanism for this impairment: a failure to spontaneously attend to widened eyes, the most distinctive physical feature portrayed in symbolic fear expressions. This study helped to invigorate debates about the brain basis of fear and paved the way for a more nuanced understanding of amygdalar function.