Research team finds human brain particularly sensitive to images of animals
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 09:30
in Psychology & Sociology
(Medical Xpress) -- Scientists have long known that the right amygdala (one of two almond-shaped parts of the brain located deep with the temporal lobes) is heavily involved in processing memory and emotional responses to external stimuli; now however it appears that this tiny part of our brain also responds quite excitedly, to images of animals. Florian Mormann and colleagues from Caltech have discovered that large numbers of neurons in the right amygdala light up when a person looks at images of animals. The group have published the results of their study in Nature Neuroscience.