Epileptic Wonder: SM’s Fascinating Lack of Fear and its Implications on Brain Function

In 1965, SM was born and from an early age, he suffered from severe epileptic seizures. Initially, it was believed that he had a cerebral tumor that caused his epilepsy. However, upon further examination by the medical team, they discovered that the seizures were actually being generated by bilateral atrophy within the medial temporal lobe, specifically in the amygdala.

One of the most fascinating things about SM is that he did not feel fear. Researchers conducted a study in 2010 to investigate this further. They exposed SM to live snakes and spiders, took him on a tour of a haunted house, and showed him horror movies. When asked to draw fear, SM would draw a crawling baby. This research confirmed that fear is indeed processed in the brain.

Despite his own lack of fear response, SM was aware that most people would be scared by certain content in horror films. He had difficulty recognizing fear in others but could describe situations that could provoke fear and use different concepts to describe it. He struggled to represent this emotion through drawings, however.

Researchers attempted to induce fear in SM by exposing him to live snakes and spiders, taking him to a haunted hospital, and showing him horror films. To their surprise, SM showed no fear responses and instead displayed curiosity, fascination, and excitement in these situations.

Following SM’s case, further studies have shown the importance of the amygdala in processing fear as well as other complex aspects such as attention and social cognition. Understanding how the brain processes fear through cases like SM’s could lead to treatments that prevent fear from dominating our lives.