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Bihippocampal damage with emotional dysfunction: impaired auditory recognition of fear
F Ghika-Schmid1, J Ghika, P Vuilleumier
1Division Autonome de Neuropsychologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Suisse, Switzerland.
Abstract:
A right-handed man developed a sudden transient, amnestic syndrome associated with bilateral hemorrhage of the hippocampi, probably due to Urbach-Wiethe disease. In the 3rd month, despite significant hippocampal structural damage on imaging, only a milder degree of retrograde and anterograde amnesia persisted on detailed neuropsychological examination. On systematic testing of recognition of facial and vocal expression of emotion, we found an impairment of the vocal perception of fear, but not that of other emotions, such as joy, sadness and anger. Such selective impairment of fear perception was not present in the recognition of facial expression of emotion. Thus emotional perception varies according to the different aspects of emotions and the different modality of presentation (faces versus voices). This is consistent with the idea that there may be multiple emotion systems. The study of emotional perception in this unique case of bilateral involvement of hippocampus suggests that this structure may play a critical role in the recognition of fear in vocal expression, possibly dissociated from that of other emotions and from that of fear in facial expression. In regard of recent data suggesting that the amygdala is playing a role in the recognition of fear in the auditory as well as in the visual modality this could suggest that the hippocampus may be part of the auditory pathway of fear recognition.
Insights
This study found that hippocampal damage impairs vocal fear recognition, but not facial fear recognition. This suggests the hippocampus is crucial for processing vocal fear cues, potentially as part of an auditory fear pathway.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Bilateral hippocampal damage can cause amnesia.
- Urbach-Wiethe disease is a rare genetic disorder affecting the brain.
- Emotional perception involves complex neural systems.
Observation:
- A patient with Urbach-Wiethe disease developed amnesia due to hippocampal hemorrhage.
- Neuropsychological testing revealed persistent, though milder, amnesia.
- The patient showed impaired recognition of vocal fear but intact recognition of other vocal emotions and all facial emotions.
Findings:
- Selective impairment in vocal fear perception, dissociated from other emotions and facial fear recognition.
- Hippocampal damage significantly impacts the processing of vocal emotional cues.
- Evidence suggests modality-specific roles in emotional processing.
Implications:
- The hippocampus may play a critical role in recognizing vocal fear.
- This finding supports the existence of multiple, distinct emotion processing systems.
- The hippocampus could be part of a specific auditory pathway for fear recognition, distinct from visual pathways involving the amygdala.