E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

1: thalamus
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2: amygdala
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3: hippocampus
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Sutton, Julie; Beyond the Ordinairy
In this model, the amygdala normally receives sensory information from the
thamalus and „screens“ this for survival threat. If the stress is not too great,
the information is assessed and passed to the hippocampus for emotional
processing - that is, a sense of feeling about the stress is developed. After
this emotional „evaluation“ the next step is the higher processing at the
prefrontal cortex. If extreme stress is assessed at the amygdala stage, an
alarm call results and any further processing is blocked. This removes the
possibility of placing emotional value on the experience and is sensed in the
body through feelings of numbness and shock. Here, the „flight or flight“
mechanism occurs. In the most extreme experiences, it is believed that
permanent damage occurs in the amygdala. For those who live with PTSD
the social support systems we rely on to survive stressful events are no
longer available because of this damage. Without the ability to assign
emotional value on our responses to situations involving others, the normal
social interactions become useless.
4: prefrontal cortex
Even if not developing psychiatric symptoms those traumatised by violent
conflict experience the sense of loss of security and safety at a level that
can feel like a threat to physical and/or psychological survival. The
communities of Belfast and Mostar have had access to such experiences, in
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