Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The amygdala, social behavior, and danger detection.

David G Amaral1

  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Center for Neuroscience, The California National Primate Research Center, University of California-Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA. dgamaral@ucdavis.edu

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
|February 10, 2004
PubMed
Summary

The amygdala is not essential for social behavior or learning. Instead, it may help regulate fear responses to potential dangers, potentially influencing social anxiety disorders.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Multimodal predictors of spoken vocabulary development in autism: the role of early childhood brain and behavior.

Translational psychiatry·2026
Same author

Selective enrichment of TCF4 in GABAergic neurons during postnatal primate development.

Frontiers in neuroanatomy·2026
Same author

Why I Invited a Commentary on "Why We Need to Study Assisted Methods to Teach Typing to Nonspeaking Autistic People".

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research·2026
Same author

An X-linked long non-coding RNA, PTCHD1-AS, and the core features of autism.

Nature·2026
Same author

Language Abilities Associated With Household Income and Parental Education Level in Autistic Children During Early Childhood.

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research·2026
Same author

Postnatal Development of the Perirhinal and Parahippocampal Cortices: A Stereological Study in Macaque Monkeys.

The Journal of comparative neurology·2026

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Primate Behavior
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • The amygdala, located in the temporal lobe, is linked to fear, memory, and social communication.
  • Research in primates often focuses on the amygdala's role in processing social signals and maintaining social hierarchies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the necessity of the amygdala for species-typical social behavior and social knowledge acquisition.
  • To examine the effects of bilateral amygdala lesions on social interactions and fear responses in rhesus monkeys.

Main Methods:

  • Bilateral amygdala lesions were performed on adult and infant rhesus monkeys.
  • Social behaviors and fear responses to novel stimuli and social situations were observed and analyzed.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Adult monkeys with amygdala lesions showed typical social behavior, increased affiliation, and reduced fear.
  • Infant monkeys with lesions displayed normal social development but increased fear in novel social contexts.
  • The amygdala appears not to be essential for basic social behavior or learning.

Conclusions:

  • The amygdala may function as a critical component in evaluating environmental threats, modulating social interactions.
  • It might inhibit social interaction with unfamiliar individuals during threat assessment.
  • Dysfunction or hyperactivity could be linked to anxiety and social phobia.