I’ve been studying the amygdala for more than 30 years. When I started this work, research on this brain region was a lonely field of inquiry. The hippocampus was all the rage, and I sometimes felt ...

Illustration of the basolateral amygdala (blue), hippocampus (yellow), and perirhinal cortex (pink) and electrical signals from each region during a recognition test trial. Source: Cory Inman, Emory ...

An amygdala hijack happens when your amygdala — a part of your brain that regulates emotions — triggers a fight-or-flight response to stress and overrides your frontal lobes’ ability to respond ...

The amygdala can activate a person’s fight-or-flight response as a reaction to a real or perceived threat of danger. Amygdala hijack describes the perhaps unnecessary triggering of this response and ...

A recent brain imaging study provides evidence that individuals accused of murder tend to have smaller volumes in specific ...

Have you ever wondered why you jump when you’re startled? Maybe you wonder why you have a harder time handling stress and anxiety than your friends and family do. Part of the reason might lie in your ...