Dreaming in Urbach-Wiethe patients the effect of amygdala damage on dreaming

Abstract

As it stands, there is a paucity of literature looking at the effect of damaged amygdalae on dreaming and dream content. Of the many functions, the amygdala is heavily involved in processing emotional stimuli and fear conditioning. In Revonsuo’s threat simulation theory (TST), the amygdala plays an important role in the threat simulation mechanism. This mechanism evaluates the threatening situation, then chooses and executes the avoidant type behaviour to successfully avoid the potential threat. All of this is done in the dream world to ensure that humans have a safe virtual environment in which to practice these responses. To test this theory, a sample of people without a functioning amygdala was needed. Unfortunately, bilateral amygdala lesions are extremely rare in the human population. Urbach-Wiethe disease (UWD) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder that presents with characteristic amygdala calcifications. A sample of 8 UWD patients and 8 matched controls (all females) from the Northern Cape in South Africa were used.