Spider anxiety cut out of the brain

Brain surgery leads to the cure of a spider phobia

03/11/2014

By chance, British researchers have released a man from his fear of spiders (arachnophobia) during a brain operation. The removal of part of the amygdala not only brought the desired healing success, but also released the patient from his phobia, reports the science magazine „New scientist“. For the first time ever, a person who had suffered from a phobia for life was completely cured overnight.

The 44-year-old patient had gone into treatment for sudden onset seizures, and during a brain scan, doctors around Nick Medford at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK) had an anomaly in the left amygdala - the area in the temporal lobe, which, among other things, is involved in the emotional reactions. The businessman suffered from a rare form of sarcoidosis and the physicians opted for surgery on the patient's brain.

Random healing of spider phobia
The doctors decided to remove the damaged tissue of the left amygdala. „The operation went well, but soon after, the man noticed a strange turn of events“, reported „New scientist“. Not only did the patient develop a peculiar fear of music - which was particularly noticeable when he heard the song of a particular TV commercial - but he also discovered that he was no longer afraid of spiders. Previously, his spider phobia was so pronounced that he threw tennis balls at them or fixed them with hairspray and then sucked them in with the vacuum cleaner, the science magazine writes. Now he is able to observe the spiders at close range and even to touch. In fact, he finds them fascinating. While his distaste for music faded over time, the spider phobia never returned, reports „New scientist“ continue. For other types of fears or worries, however, no changes were detectable. For example, before and after the operation, the patient had also shown stage fright during public speeches.

Various forms of anxiety reaction
The attending physician commented on the unusual incident that it was difficult to determine how the single phobic response was eliminated. Perhaps this is due to the fact that two different forms of anxiety reaction come into play here: An extremely fast, in the little time to weigh, and a more thoughtful. „It's like seeing a snake and jumping back in alarm, but looking back, you realize it was just a stick“, cited „New scientist“ the physician Nick Medford. The rapid anxiety reaction is not very accurate, but necessary for basic survival. Added to this is the nuanced estimate of fear, in which the information processing takes longer, but is more accurate. In the patient's case, some of the nerve tracts controlling panic-type anxiety response appear to have been removed, while the parts of the amygdala responsible for generalized anxiety remained intact.

Questionable therapeutic benefit
An exact assessment of the phenomenon is not possible according to the medical profession, because the patient did not want to undergo further examinations and before the procedure no information was made about phobias or mental health problems. The medical benefit of the current discovery, however, remains questionable anyway, since the amygdala is too deep in the brain to influence non-invasive methods, Nick Medford reports „New scientist“. In view of the associated risks, surgery on the brain is hardly justifiable in order to treat individual phobias, especially as the success of the operation would be a chance product on the basis of previous findings. (Fp)