Amygdala dysfunction and dream affect in

This study aimed to investigate the amygdala’s involvement in dream affect. The amygdala is well known in the literature for its role in emotional processing, especially fear and anger. The amygdala is thought to modulate dream content in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and is thought to account for large proportion of negative emotion in dreaming, as it is heightened during REM sleep. Patients with amygdala hyperactivity report greater negative emotions during dreaming and more nightmares. Studies have not yet investigated the effect of amygdala lesions on dream affect. Urbach-Wiethe disease (UWD) patients are useful in this regard as they have relatively isolated bilateral amygdala calcifications. Eight UWD patients and eight matched controls were recruited from a small rural community in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Participants were all female, coloured, Afrikaans speaking, and aged 23-69. Participants were interviewed using the Most Recent Dream method. Dream reports were then coded for intensity of various basic emotions using a measure created for the purpose of this study. The measure was based on the seven basic neurobiological emotional systems identified by Panksepp (1998, 2006). Mixed-design ANOVAs were used to investigate between-group and within-group differences for each emotion, amygdala related versus non-amygdala related emotions, and positive versus negative emotions. The results showed that there were no significant differences in emotional intensity between the UWD patients and matched controls. No within-group differences or interaction effects were found in either group. These findings cast doubt on previous literature concerning the amygdala’s central role in dream content.