http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s404806.htm
has an interesting account of recent brainscan work in Oz, indicating that
many schizophrenics have zero amygdala activation under circumstances when
ordinary folks do, although collateral somatic arousal does occur. So the
experience is of frightening physical effects--getting the creeps,
basically--with no apparently cognitive justification; hence their growing
tendency to confabulate a fanciful explanation (`They're out there, they're
trying to kill me', etc).
There's also a report on the tendency of such folks to avoid people's
eyes/gaze when visually scanning faces, and hence missing/misunderstanding
the usual templated cues to other people's inner states.
Damien Broderick
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