Mentor
Dr. Daniel Tranel
Participation year
2005
Project title

The Role of the Amygdala in Emotional Memory

Abstract

What makes a person remember on thing over another? Different findings from previous studies suggest that the amygdala helps to guide behaviors and to process such as attention, decision-making and memory. This is a lesion study being done to help support a role for the amygdala in recognizing emotions in facial expressions. The hypothesis is that the normal subjects will mostly remember the negative scenarios followed by positive, and then remember the neutral scenarios the least because that's how the normal brain operates. In contrast, the subjects with the amygdala damage are hypothesized to not have any preference in memory meaning that they remember negative faces just as well as positive faces just as well as neutral faces. It sets out to prove that the amygdala plays a role in selective memory. It has already be proven that the amygdala is necessary in the recognition of angry faces. This study expounds on that finding.

Kevin  Pinkston
Education
Dillard University