Hasegawa et al. first used a fluorescence-based sensor to measure dopamine levels in the amygdala of mice as they naturally cycled between wakefulness and non-REM and REM sleep. Dopamine release in ...

The amygdala is often referred to as the fear center of the brain, but this description hardly does justice to the amygdala's complexity. Located deep in the brain's left and right temporal lobes, our ...

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 ...

The trauma of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is both personal and social. The condition affects approximately 3.5 percent of U.S. adults every year and the prevalence of the condition in ...

The amygdala is part of the limbic system, which regulates emotional and behavioral responses. An amygdala hijack is a fight-or-flight response to stress. To better understand what an amygdala hijack ...

In 1995, author Daniel Goleman coined the term “amygdala hijack”–an idea that has subsequently appeared in countless blogs, self-help books, and videos. According to this idea, a part of the brain ...

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 ...