Amy G Dala—Rapper or Brain Center?

If you picked “rapper” you’re probably wrong. Amygdala is actually the name for a brain center, but Amy G Dala would be a great name for a rapper. Amy G—the brain center— “is the primary neural structure controlling fearful arousal,” so says Karlen Lyons-Ruth, an attachment researcher working at the Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Lyons-Ruth recently contacted our Foundation to let us know about a proposed research project. “We have a unique opportunity,” writes Dr. Lyons-Ruth, “to collaborate with Dr. Martin Teicher’s neuroscience lab at Harvard to look at whether there are structural changes in the brain in young adulthood associated with disorganization in the attachment relationship in infancy.” She continues, “We are particularly interested in potential structural changes in the amygdala.” Because Amy G the brain center is centrally about controlling fearful arousal (although I have known a few rappers who have brought about fearful arousal, especially in parents), it stands to reason that it “should be seriously affected by early disorganized attachment” (quoting Dr. Lyons-Ruth). The purpose of this proposed study is to investigate whether there is empirical support for making such an assumption. Turns out that research of this kind has already been done. “Recent work,” writes Dr. Lyons-Ruth, “has shown that early institutional care is associated with changes in the amygdala in later childhood.” Dr. Lyons-Ruth gives us this “bottom line”: “We think this is an absolutely unique opportunity to capitalize on the 20 years of effort we have put into following our high-risk sample group from infancy.” Stay tuned for more on Amy G—the brain center. And if we hear that there’s a rapper out there named Amy G Dala, well, we’ll report on that too.