Seat Of Emotions In Brain May Also Contribute To Higher Cognition

小脳扁桃は脳内の情緒の中央処理ステーションだが、Yale 大学の研究によると、小脳扁桃は同時に作業メモリにある役割を果たしているという。作業メモリは推論と問題解決に決定的に重要な高度認識機能である.

fMRIを使った研究で個々の際が検証された。

作業メモリによるタスクの間、小脳扁桃の応答が強い人々は、反応の時間も早いという。この効果は、情緒的とはいえないような、中立的な言葉に対してもこの効果は持続したという。

この研究結果は驚くべきことで、その理由は、主にまたは専門的に情動処理に関わると広く考えられていた脳の構造が同時に高度な認識、それも情動的内容が全くない内容に対して、関与していたということである。

この研究チームは次のような仮定をたてている。すなわち、小脳扁桃は、いろいろの目的のなかでも、困難な状況に対処し一般的に警戒に対処するためと、同時に、目前のタスクに関与する情報を整理する能力に資するためと。


" amgydala activation predicted faster working memory performance."
http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/06-11-09-01.all.html

The amygdala is a central processing station in the brain for emotions, but Yale researchers report that the amygdala also plays a role in working memory, a higher cognitive function critical for reasoning and problem solving.

In two different functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies with a total of 74 participants, individual differences in amygdala activity predicted behavioral performance on a working memory task, according to the report in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"People with stronger amygdala responses during the working memory task also had faster response times," said Jeremy Gray, senior author of the study and assistant professor of psychology."This effect held even when people were responding to neutral words, which can hardly be called emotional."

"Our findings are surprising because they show that a brain structure widely thought to be involved primarily, or perhaps even exclusively, in emotion processing is also involved in higher cognition, even when there is no emotional content," Gray said. "

He and his team hypothesize that the amygdala may serve, among other purposes, a general vigilance function aimed at preparing people to better cope with challenging situations and also the ability to sort information according to its relevance to the task at hand.