The effectiveness of lateral stimuli as support for the role of the amygdala

• Ocular Dearmoring in Orgonomic Therapy vs. EMDR by Leah Longan, 2/3/98
  • Contrasts in medical orgonomy & EMDR by Andrew M. Leeds, 4/4/98
    
    

The fact that any lateral stimulation can elicit the therapeutic effect in EMDR may be supportive of the connection to the amygdala. Michael Davis discusses "...increases in levels of dopamine or the serotonin metabolite 5-HIAA in the amygdala after activation of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (Hagan et al,1990). The latter effects, which may relate to how sensory information is gated in the amygdala (Maeda and Maki 1986) were more pronounced in the right amygdala vs the left (Hagan et al 1990), consistent with other lateralized effects reported previously (Costall et al 1987). Measures of emotionality, including fear-potentiated startle in humans, also show lateralization (cf. Lang et al 1990), consistent with a greater participation of the right vs the left hemisphere and hence perhaps the right amygdala."(see M Davis, The Role of the Amygdala in Fear and Axiety, Annual Review of Neuroscience 1992). How does the amygdala gate and process information, and how would the stimuli used in EMDR effect that processing? The overwheleming evidence that the amygdala is central in fear responses, and the even more exciting evidence that the amygdala can 'learn' directly, without processing first through the neocortex, must surely be part of the process in unconscious learning, as LeDoux and Muller have already said (Emotional memory and psychopathology, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond, 1997) "...it is conceivable that early trauma might result in the formation of emotional memories for situations that are not consciously recalled...these unconscious EMOTIONAL (added emphasis) memories can never be converted into conscious memories." If emotional memories lie in the amygdala with no access by the conscious mind, then a wholly different access would have to be made. EMDR therapy does incorporate all levels of information processing, but the crucial event may be the path to the amygdala provided by the lateral stimuli.

• &lllaos;The effectiveness of lateral stimuli as support for the role of the amygdala &lllaos; by Uri Bergmann, LCSW, BCD, 1/22/99