Just read a science article in the Straits Times entitled "Brain Illness Leaves Woman Fearless." (ST 18 Dec 2010 Page C14)
The research study that is featured in the article (diminished fear experience of a woman with a genetic condition of the amygdala) is quite interesting, but what is even more interesting is how the Straits Times presented the news.
Since the ST article was edited mainly from an
original article by Agence France-Presse (with some details from an
Associated Press report added in), it is informative to compare the ST and AFP versions to see the differences.
Words that are different or missing in either version are highlighted in
RED (additional source marked with asterix).
~~~~~~~~~~
ST VersionBrain illness leaves woman fearlessWASHINGTON - United States scientists have discovered a woman with a rare brain disease that makes her afraid of nothing - not a huge snake lurking near her children, not a knife to her throat, and certainly not a horror movie.
The
44-year-old* woman cannot experience fear because of a condition that has destroyed the part of her brain - the amygdala - where researchers believe the feeling of fear is made.
Over the past two decades researchers have been analysing the woman, known as SM, for clues about her condition which they say could help them treat post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in soldiers returning from war.
A study of her fearlessness was published online on Thursday in the journal Current Biology by University of Iowa researcher Justin Feinstein and colleagues.*
"It is quite remarkable that she is still alive," said
Mr Feinstein. "The nature of fear is survival and the amygdala helps us stay alive by avoiding situations, people, or objects that put our life in danger," he said.
Instead of fear, SM, whose rare condition is known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, describes "an overwhelming feeling of curiosity."
The woman's eldest son, who is in his 20s, told researchers he could not ever recall seeing his mother afraid.
He said he remembered one event in particular from his childhood when he was playing with his two brothers and they saw a big snake in the road nearby.
"Well,
mum just ran over there and picked it up and brought it out of the street, put it in the grass and let it go on its way," he said.
The woman also told researchers that when she was in her 30s, a man grabbed her and stuck a knife to her throat.
"She looked at the man and confidently replied, 'If you're going to kill me, you're gonna have to go through my God's angels first.' The man suddenly let her go," said the study, adding the woman then described walking calmly home.
Other experiments devised by the researchers - leading her through a haunted house where people dressed as monsters and ghosts sprung from the darkness, and showing her a series of scary video clips - fell flat too.
She considered the haunted house to be "highly exciting and entertaining", like the rush she gets from a roller coaster, Mr Feinstein said.*
Scientists believe she was once able to feel fear because she has described
childhood memories of being afraid of the dark, and being once frightened by a dog.
Mr Feinstein said he hopes that SM's experience could help treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder, a problem he has seen in his work treating US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Their lives are marred by fear, often times unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger," he said.
"By understanding how the brain processes fear, we may one day be able to create treatments that selectively target the brain areas that allow fear to take over our lives."
*From AP report
AFP Version
Woman who knows no fear could offer brain clues
WASHINGTON - US scientists have discovered a woman with a rare brain disease that makes her afraid of nothing - not a huge snake lurking near her children, not a knife to her throat, and certainly not a horror movie.
The woman cannot experience fear because of a condition that has destroyed the part of her brain - the amygdala - where researchers
say they believe the feeling of fear is made.
Over the past two decades researchers have been analysing the woman, known as SM, for clues about her condition which they say could help them treat post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in soldiers returning from war.
"It is quite remarkable that she is still alive," said
lead author Justin Feinstein whose study appears in the journal Current Biology."The nature of fear is survival and the amygdala helps us stay alive by avoiding situations, people, or objects that put our life in danger," he said.
"Because SM is missing her amygdala, she is also missing the ability to detect and avoid danger in the world."
Instead of fear, SM, whose rare condition is known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, describes "an overwhelming feeling of curiosity."
To test her reaction, researchers led her into an exotic pet store filled with spiders and snakes, animals she repeatedly said she "hates" and tries to avoid.
"Upon entering the store, SM was spontaneously drawn to the snake terrariums and appeared visually captivated by the large collection of snakes," the study said.
Asked by a store employee if she would like to hold one, SM agreed and then played with one for about three minutes.
"She rubbed its leathery scales, touched its flicking tongue, and closely watched its movements as it slithered through her hands," it said.
"Her verbal behavior revealed a comparable degree of fascination and inquisitiveness: she repeatedly commented, 'This is so cool!'"
When she reached for a tarantula, however, she had to be stopped because there was a high risk she could be bitten.
"When asked why she would want to touch something that she knows is dangerous and that she claims to hate, SM replied that she was overcome with 'curiosity,'" the study said.
The woman's eldest son, who is in his 20s, told researchers he could not ever recall seeing his mother afraid
of anything.
He said he remembered one event in particular from his childhood when he was playing with his two brothers and they saw a big snake in the road nearby.
"Well,
Mom just ran over there and picked it up and brought it out of the street, put it in the grass and let it go on its way," he said.
"I thought that was kind of weird."
The woman also told researchers that when she was in her 30s, a man grabbed her and stuck a knife to her throat.
"She looked at the man and confidently replied, 'If you're going to kill me, you're gonna have to go through my God's angels first.' The man suddenly let her go," said the study, adding the woman then described walking calmly home.
Other experiments devised by the researchers - leading her through a haunted house where people dressed as monsters and ghosts sprung from the darkness, and showing her a series of scary video clips - fell flat too.
"She reacted to the monsters by smiling, laughing, or trying to talk to them," the study said.
"She found the fear films to be exciting and entertaining, and in one case, she inquired about the name of the movie so she could rent it from the video store later that day."
Scientists believe she was once able to feel fear because she has described
a childhood memory of being afraid of a dog.
They also note that "SM has never been convicted of any crime, but rather has been the victim of numerous crimes."
Feinstein said he hopes that SM's experience could help treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder, a problem he has seen in his work treating US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Their lives are marred by fear, often times unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger," he said.
"By understanding how the brain processes fear, we may one day be able to create treatments that selectively target the brain areas that allow fear to take over our lives."
Feinstein said science should look for PTSD treatments that "focus on ways to safely and non-invasively dampen amygdala activity," mainly through medication and psychotherapy.~~~~~~~~~~
A significant portion of the original AFP article is omitted from the ST version.
Interestingly, the missing parts are mostly related to the downside of having practically no fear, such as the inability to detect and avoid danger, fascination with potentially dangerous animals, becoming a victim of crimes etc.
A quick survey of other new reports indicates that this danger of lacking fear is actually an important message from the researchers - here are some excerpts:
~~~~~~~~~~
1. Associated Press
a) Her case shows that the amygdala plays a key role in making people feel afraid in threatening situations, researchers say.
Her life history also shows that living without fear can be dangerous, they said.
b) She apparently hasn't felt fear as an adult, not even 15 years ago in an incident described by the researchers. A man jumped up from a park bench, pressed a knife to her throat and hissed, "I'm going to cut you."
SM, who heard a church choir practicing in the distance, looked coolly at him and replied, "If you're going to kill me, you're going to have to go through my God's angels first."
The man suddenly let her go. She didn't run home. She walked.
"Her lack of fear may have freaked the guy out," Feinstein said.
But it also got her into that situation in the first place, he noted. SM had willingly approached the man when he asked her to, even though it was late at night and she was alone, and even though she thought he looked "drugged out."
SM has also walked into other dangerous situations because of her lack of fear, and all in all, it's remarkable she's still alive, Feinstein said.
2. ABC News
a) S.M. also had exposure to fearful situations in her past. She was held up at gunpoint and at knifepoint and was almost killed during a domestic incident. S.M. told researchers she did not feel fear during these life-threatening situations. She was also aware that her inability to react to fearful stimuli was not normal.
b) S.M.'s case is also important to understand because the ability to experience fear and respond to it is essential to survival. The researchers believe that because she could not detect threats to her safety and avoid them, she wound up in numerous life-threatening situations.
"Indeed, it appears that without the amygdala, the evolutionary value of fear is lost," the authors wrote.
3. Time.com (Healthland)
a) The authors note that SM's response to what would normally be considered fear-inducing situations was not characterized simply by a lack of responsiveness, but rather a heightened arousal and interest. In other words, she practically courted danger.
b) The researchers stress that SM's condition is more a curse than a blessing: "[SM's] behavior, time and time again, leads her back to the very situations she should be avoiding, highlighting the indispensable role that the amygdala plays in promoting survival by compelling the organism away from danger. Indeed, it appears that without the amygdala, the evolutionary value of fear is lost."
4. Discovery News
a) That wasn't the only occasion that SM, who was living in the projects in a seedy part of town, got herself into a precarious situation. There was the time, for example, that a man approached her from behind, put a gun to her head, yelled "Boom!" and then ran away. She figured her attacker was a drug dealer whom she had repeatedly turned in to the police, but she didn't consider calling the cops after the incident.
"She described the situation as strange," Feinstein said. "She's not reacting in normal ways that anyone who had fear would."
b) "We don't suggest by any means to remove this area of the brain," Feinstein said. "We don't want a million SM's walking around getting in trouble. This one case highlights why we do need an amygdala."
Instead, it's possible that drugs or behavioral methods could quiet the amygdala just enough to free people whose lives have been taken over by fear.
5. Scienceblogs.com (Neurophilosophy)
a) SM has been studied extensively during the past two decades. Early investigations showed that her non-verbal visual memory was signficantly impaired but that otherwise she had an IQ in the low-average range. She also displayed inappropriate social behaviours, quickly becoming friendly with the experimenters and making sexual remarks, due to disturbed executive control. Subsequently, it was found that she was unable to recognize emotions in facial expressions, and a study published earlier this year showed that the brain damage had eliminated her monetary loss aversion - that is, she makes risky financial decisions that most of us would avoid because of a fear of losing money.
b) But based on interviews with her and her three children, the authors suggest that she probably has not experienced fear at all throughout the whole duration of her adult life, despite having encountered an unusually high number of traumatic and life-threatening events. Aged 30, she had a knife held to her throat by a drug addict while she walked through a park at night, but did not panic and walked away calmly when he let her go. She has also been held at gun point, was nearly killed in an act of domestic violence, and has been the victim of numerous crimes in the poverty-stricken area in which she lives.
~~~~~~~~~~
From these excerpts, it can be seen that all the above news articles - except for the Straits Times version - emphasize the researchers' point about the dangers of lacking fear.
Would you like to know more?
-
The Human Amygdala and the Induction and Experience of Fear (Feinstein et al. 2010) Current Biology
I can't be the first person on the planet to have noticed this...
Just read a science article in the Straits Times entitled "Brain Illness Leaves Woman Fearless." (ST 18 Dec 2010 Page C14)
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