Amygdala and fear conditioning

• What is fear conditioning, and how does it relate to aggression?

  • learning to inhibit aggression by associating it with with negative consequences (e.g. Punishment)
• What happens when the amygdala is dysfunctional?

  • the person fails to recognise social threats (e.g. angry faces)

  • fear conditioning is disrupted, leading to fearlessness, aggression, and antisocial behaviour
• What did Yu Gao et Al (2010) find in their longitudinal study on fear conditioning?

  • 1,795 children were tested for fear responses at age 3

  • at age 23, those with no fear conditioning were more likely to have committed crimes

  • suggests amygdala dysfunction may cause criminal behaviour