Question

Magine that the parts of the brain can speak. As you look at a black widow spider coming towards you, which part would say, "It's my responsibility to determine if a stimulus has positive or negative emotional significance"?

a) The amygdala
b) The frontal cortex
c) The hippocampus
d) The hypothalamus

Answer 1

The amygdala is responsible for determining if a stimulus has positive or negative emotional significance.

Step-by-step explanation:

The part of the brain that would say, "It's my responsibility to determine if a stimulus has positive or negative emotional significance" when you see a black widow spider coming towards you is the amygdala.

The amygdala is a group of nuclei in the medial region of the temporal lobe that is part of the limbic lobe. It plays a role in processing emotional information and attaching emotional value to learning processes and memory. It also has connections with the hypothalamus and is involved in regulating the autonomic nervous system's activity.

Therefore, when you perceive a threat like a black widow spider, the amygdala quickly processes the information and determines if it has negative emotional significance, triggering fear and activating the fight-or-flight response.