Over the past few years, researchers have been studying a woman who had suffered damage to the part of her brain known as the amygdala, which is responsible for processing fear. She showed a complete lack of fear in the controlled experiments and also in her life experiences, which involve living in a place with a lot of crime. In a recent experiment, however, involving breathing in a safe amount of carbon dioxide that nonetheless reproduces a feeling of suffocation, the woman and the researchers were all surprised to find that she experienced feelings of fear. The result seems to show a difference in the way the body processes external and internal threats.
Read the full article here: Study Discovers Internal Trigger for Panic Attack in the Previously Fearless