Emotion, Memory and the Brain

CORTICAL AND SUBCORTICAL PATHWAYS in the brain - generalized from our knowledge of the auditory system – may bring about a fearful response to a snake on a hiker’s path. Visual stimuli are first processed by the thalamus, which passes rough, almost archetypal, information directly to the amygdala (red). This quick transmission allows the brain to start to respond to the possible danger (green). Meanwhile the visual cortex also receives information from the thalamus and, with more perceptual sophistication and more time, determines that there is a snake on the path (blue). This information is relayed to the amygdala, causing heart rate and blood pressure to increase and muscles to contract. If, however, the cortex had determined that the object was not a snake, the message to the amygdala would quell the fear response.

.

Emotion, Memory and the Brain
The neural routes underlying the formation
of memories about primitive emotional
experiences, such as fear, have been traced
by Joseph E. LeDoux

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1994

.

Passar-se-á o mesmo, tomando por hipótese que a serpente, não é uma serpente mas sim, um indeterminado infinito? Nada mais nos restará senão agarrá-lo(a), com (c)alma e, quem sabe, beijá-lo(a) (?)