What does a person without amygdalae fail to feel, and what can they still feel? · Grey Matter

The patient SM, whose amygdalae were destroyed by Urbach-Wiethe disease, showed almost no fear of external threats: she handled snakes and spiders, found a haunted house entertaining and reported little fear in frightening situations, while feeling other emotions normally.

What does a person without amygdalae fail to feel, and what can they still feel?

The patient SM, whose amygdalae were destroyed by Urbach-Wiethe disease, showed almost no fear of external threats: she handled snakes and spiders, found a haunted house entertaining and reported little fear in frightening situations, while feeling other emotions normally. Yet when she and two other patients with the same lesion inhaled air with 35 % carbon dioxide, they felt intense panic, more than most healthy volunteers. The amygdala is therefore needed to turn threats from the world into fear, while fear from the body's own alarm (suffocation sensed by the brainstem) can arise without it.