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Showing posts with label amygdala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amygdala. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

People are afraid to lose money and an unusual study released on Monday explains why


the brain's fear center controls the response to a gamble study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money.

The finding, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insight into economic behavior and suggests that humans evolved to be cautious about the prospects of losing food or other valued possessions.