On the day when she encountered abduction, she ordered the rapist to drive and went home

During the six years of meeting S.M., Justin Feinstein tried everything to scare her.

He invited her to visit the world -renowned thriller house to play a carefully selected terrorist movie collection for her, took her into a favorite shop, and handed the huge spiders and pythons to her hands -but all these attempts ended in failure.

S.M. never showed any trace of fear. These stimuli is enough to make ordinary people scalp, but her response has always been excited and curious. She didn't care about playing the python spit out, wandering around the ghost house, which scared the staff.

This is not a strange prank, but a scientific research on the brain. Vanstan is a neurologist, and his subject S.M. is the "most fearless person" in the world.

Ghost house, python, horror movie, all scare stimuli is completely invalid for S.M. | TAMA66/ Pixabay

The most fearless woman

S.M. is a American woman and one of the most famous cases in the neurological community -otherwise, we almost know the identity of this mysterious woman. For many years, researchers have been careful to protect her privacy. Her real name and residence have never been made public, and no reporters have never been allowed to meet directly with her.

Her "fearlessness" is completely different from the bravery of ordinary people: it is a lack of functional function from the brain lesions. S.M. rare genetic disease named "lipid protein deposition". This disease not only endangers skin and mucous membranes, but also sometimes leads to calcified lesions in the patient's brain.

This lesion gradually destroyed the almond nucleus on both sides of the S.M. brain -this structure is closely related to emotions, memory, and decision -making, especially for fear of fear. S.M. I was scared at an early age, but since her teens, the disease has completely taken away her perception of fear. In addition, she can still feel other emotions such as pleasure, sadness, and intelligence at normal levels.

On the right is the S.M. Magnetic scanning image, and the left side is a health control. The red circle labels the lack of almond nucleus on both sides of the brain | iOWA Neurology Patient Registry

In 1986, when S.M. 20 years old, neurosciences met the unusual patient for the first time. At that time, she was the first case that people discovered. The almond nucleus of S.M. was completely destroyed by the disease, but the other structure in her brain was well preserved -this extremely rare feature provides a rare opportunity to explore the function of the almond nucleus.

For decades, researchers, including Vanistan, conducted a continuous follow -up investigation and experiment on her. These experiments refresh people's understanding of fear and emotions, and also help people understand how psychiatric diseases such as panic and trauma stress disorder are produced.

Be in a crisis

The "fearless" life sounds cool, but for S.M., this is more like a curse.

Fear is not just a painful emotional response, it is also an important survival tool. Fear of fear can make people plan actions and take the initiative to stay away from danger -while S.M. does not have this ability and consciousness at all. This made her life full of hardships.

Fear is a necessity for helping people away from dangerous | Ajel/Pixabay

S.M. Living in poor poverty -stricken neighborhoods, there are various dangers such as violent crimes and drugs. But she always believes in others too much, and lacks concepts of danger in front of her. She was involved in violent crimes several times, and even almost killed. "She is still so amazing." Vandtan, who tracked and observed S.M., sighed.

Among them, an attempt to rape highlighted the response that S.M. faced threats from ordinary people. S.M. met a middle -aged man driving a truck on the side of the road. He claimed that he met with her friends and wanted to invite her to play billiards together. S.M. immediately believed in this stranger, but he was brought to a abandoned barn. He suddenly poured her to the ground, pulled her clothes and pants, and tried to implement infringement. At this point, the appearance of a dog prevented the man's actions -he was worried that the dog's owner was also nearby. S.M. was very angry, but she was not afraid at all. After standing up, she took the man's truck and roared and asked the other party to send himself home immediately.

Victims usually want to escape the criminal as soon as possible, but S.M. seems to only consider how to take a car home | stocksnap/pixabay

Even if you already know how much S.M. lacks a sense of crisis, the researchers are still deeply shocked when they learned about this. She had a chance to leave and could run to the nearby farm for help, but she didn't care about a car with rapist, and even took the initiative to expose where she lived! After arriving at home, S.M. Let the prisoner drive away, not even remembered the license plate number. On the same day, she went out as usual and never worried about meeting the prisoner again.

Even if there are no gangsters, S.M. often face economic difficulties. Over the years, she has been lacking in stable work. She has been relied on government relief life. This relief fund can ensure food and clothing, but she always spends money without planning and often puts herself into the crisis of buying food without money. Even if she tried repeatedly, she still couldn't manage the money wisely, and the researchers had to arrange a special person to help. Lack of crisis often makes S.M. fall into economic difficulties | EmkanicePic/Pixabay

The only fear

Strictly speaking, S.M. is not completely unknown. After many years of experiments, the researchers finally discovered the only thing that made her fear: carbon dioxide.

To be precise, it is a mixed gas with 35%carbon dioxide. It can provide sufficient oxygen, but the carbon dioxide content is 875 times that of air. As long as you take a deep breath, it is enough to raise the carbon dioxide concentration in the human body -this will activate chemical sensors, produce a brief sense of suffocation and fear, and stop the symptoms after the inhalation. This relatively safe induction method is commonly used in research related to scary seizures, and researchers have also tested S.M..

People originally thought that this would not have any effect, but after a few seconds, carbon dioxide put the lady into a strong panic. "Save me!" She shouted, waved her arm desperately, and motioned the researchers to help her take off the mask. "I can't do it anymore, I can't breathe." She said softly, saying that this was the "worst fear" in her lifetime. Her response was even much stronger than the health control group.

Inhale carbon dioxide let S.M. feel the only fear after adulthood | Tuwa Creative

Researchers have found that the almond core is not the only "fear center" in the brain, and there is not only one way to produce fear. Those crisis signals from the outside world, such as visual and auditory clues, must be treated with almond nuclear treatment to generate fear; however, the alarm directly coming to its own body by bypassing this road, fear of the body damaged in the almond nucleus.

Strong survival

Today, S.M. is 57 years old. She has encountered many injuries and pains throughout her life. Since childhood, she has endured the pain of illness, loneliness, and peers since her childhood. When she grows up, she has experienced failed marriage, family violence, and several dangers of life. She still lives optimisticly, always maintaining a kindness, justice, and extraordinary enthusiasm.

She is particularly slow to her crisis, but she often cares about the difficulties of others and is ready to help. She rushed into the storm and looked for friends who needed to take care of, and used the few money left to buy a jacket for the frozen tramp. She did not hesitate to confront the vicious neighbors of the big block. Even if she received the threat of death, she still reported to the police that they hid drugs in the backyard. She always acts in an instant, reckless and brave, and it seems that she has never considered the advantages and disadvantages.

The disease made her a "abnormal person", which made her be trapped in danger again and again, but also gave her a "super power" -no matter how terrible experiences, she would not leave it in her special brain. Trauma, so she couldn't knock her down.

"Without a fierce battle, I won't fall down!" In the diary that communicated with researchers, S.M. wrote such a sentence. "I have taught me to stand with my feet. I can still stand after I have endured all the heavy punch, and then continue to move forward."

references

[1] David G. AMRARARARA, RALPH Adolphs (EDS.) -Living Without An Amygdala -the Guilford Press (2016)

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0960982210015083

[3] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729071-600- the-curious-liES--PeOPLE--Feel-fear/

Author: window knock rain

Edit: LUNA

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