ARTICLE UPDATE - A critical period for the impact of amygdala damage on the emotional enhancement of memory?

P. Shaw, MD, B. Brierley, PhD and A. S. David, MD

Neurology, 65, 326-328

The amygdala is crucial in modulating enhanced memory for emotionally arousing material. The authors provide evidence that unilateral lesions of the human amygdala arising early in development, but not in adulthood, are associated with a loss of the expected superior retrieval of emotionally arousing over neutral material. This adds to evidence for an early critical period in the development of amygdala function.