Smells Like Emotion: Brain splits duties to sniff out feelings
By Bruce Bower
The inner-brain structure known as the amygdala is getting an emotional makeover. Fingered in many studies as the brain’s fear center, the amygdala actually takes charge of assessing the emotional intensity of both pleasant and unpleasant sensations, according to a new investigation.
At the least, this new view of the amygdala applies to fragrant and foul odors, say neuroscientist Adam K. Anderson of Stanford University and his colleagues. The amygdala probably operates in the same way to mark the emotional intensity for sights, sounds, tastes, and tactile sensations, the scientists speculate in the February Nature Neuroscience.