Keeping animals in mind

'This selectivity appeared to be independent of emotional valence or arousal and may reflect the importance that animals held throughout our evolutionary past'

By Pat Kelly. Neurology researchers have discovered that there is a dedicated place in our brains, the specific job of which is to dictate our reactions to animals and whether or not they should be perceived as a threat.

In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers proved that only the right-brain side of the amygdala is involved in dealing with images of animals. This dictates whether we find the animal cute, threatening, or simply repugnant. While the amygdala is responsible for processing strong emotions such as fear, it contains a lobe in the right hemisphere as well as the left.

However the researchers discovered that it is only the right-brain side of the amygdala that deals with animals. They studied a range of patients who were being examined for epilepsy research, while simultaneously being shown a variety of images, which included landmarks, people, objects and animals.

During the course of their study, they found that only the neurons on the right-brain side of the amygdala responded consistently to the photos of animals and determined our emotions and reactions to them.

“We analyzed responses recorded from 489 single neurons in the amygdalae of 41 neurosurgical patients and found a categorical selectivity for pictures of animals in the right amygdala. This selectivity appeared to be independent of emotional valence or arousal and may reflect the importance that animals held throughout our evolutionary past,” said the study authors.

pat.kelly@imt.ie