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The Amygdala and Human Evolution.. A connection????

Klenow bakedbeans at spam.not
Sun Jan 25 19:12:14 EST 2004


One thing this abstract doesn't mention is how successful the temporal lobe
resection was at reducing the incidence of seizures.  Since sexual
dysfuntion is well known in epilepsy, the success of the resection could
result in improved sexual drive irrespective of any direct involvement of
the amygdala in sexual behaviour.



"James Michael Howard" <jmhoward at arkansas.net> wrote in message
news:4nk810974c5foigcsui90s71j9us98ro7p at 4ax.com...
> The Amygdala and Human Evolution.. A connection????
>
> In 1985, I copyrighted "A Theory of the Control of the Ontogeny and
Phylogeny of
> Homo sapiens by the Interaction of Dehydroepiandrosterone and the
Amygdala."  I
> had difficulty researching my ideas regarding DHEA and the amygdala, so I
> focused on DHEA.  Anyway I was pleased to find the following, new article
which
> shows that I may have been on the right path in my selection of the
amygdala.
>
> Annals of Neurology 2004 Jan; 55(1): 87-96.
> The amygdala and sexual drive: Insights from temporal lobe epilepsy
surgery.
>
> Baird AD, Wilson SJ, Bladin PF, Saling MM, Reutens DC.
>
> School of Behavioural Science, Department of Psychology, University of
> Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
>
> The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the amygdala
and
> human sex drive. We compared amygdalar volume in groups of patients with
or
> without sexual changes after temporal lobe resection and in age-matched
> neurologically normal subjects. Forty-five patients with intractable
temporal
> lobe epilepsy who underwent surgical resection in the Comprehensive
Epilepsy
> Program at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre completed a
semistructured
> interview and questionnaire relating to sexual outcome after surgery.
Volumetric
> analyses of both amygdalae were conducted on the patients' preoperative
> T(1)-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans and those of 46
neurologically
> normal controls. Patients who reported a postoperative sexual increase had
a
> significantly larger amygdalar volume contralateral to the site of their
> resective surgery than patients with a sexual decrease or no change than
control
> subjects. There was a significant positive relationship between
contralateral
> amygdalar volume and the maximum degree of sexual change. We have
demonstrated a
> relationship between contralateral amygdalar volume and sexual outcome in
> patients undergoing temporal lobe resection. This finding provides
evidence for
> an important role of the amygdala in regulating human sexual behavior. A
larger
> contralateral amygdala may contribute to the expression of increased or
improved
> sexuality after temporal lobe resection
>
> James Michael Howard
> www.anthropogeny.com






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