The amygdala is a bit of brain matter in the temporal lobe. Neurons
in the amygdala are linked to emotions such as fear. Fear is not only
essential for humans, but also a crucial response in all animal life. If
you want to survive, avoiding things that could end your existence
is a good place to start.
However, since high sensation-seekers have a different
response to highly chaotic and sometimes dangerous experi-
ences, they don’t always perceive they’re in danger when they
are, in fact, in danger. Take Lara, a high sensation-seeker who
lives in California. I asked her about her early experiences with
thrill.
“I think the earliest I can remember is being about five,” she
explained. “My dad had this old ’53 Ford pickup and we would go
drive after church. We’d drive up into the mountains in Northern
California. I would say, ‘Stop! Stop! You’ve got to stop the truck!’ My
dad would pull over and then I’d get out and I’d stand on the edge of
the cliff and hold my arms out and say, ‘This is so beautiful!’
“My mom would scream ‘Lara, get back in the car! Get back
in the car!’ And my dad would get out and just stand next to me and
put his hand out in front of me so I didn’t fall over the edge. I loved
it. I wasn’t afraid. I don’t know if that makes me a thrill-seeker, but
I didn’t feel any fear. I think they probably thought that stuff would
go away, but it didn’t.”
And boy didn’t it. In fact, Lara’s sensation-seeking became
even more intense as she grew older.
“I’ve sky dived a few times. I’ve bungee jumped a couple of
times too. Those were probably in my twenties and thirties. Roller
coasters, all that. I want the biggest ones I can find. Sometimes I go
on them by myself because my family won’t go with me.”I asked her if she’d ever felt afraid.
“Of dying? No, I don’t think so.”“I almost hit a train once,” she told me as an after-
thought. “It was early in the morning, I was driving and the
sun was shining behind me, right into the railroad track lights,
you know, the red blinking lights, and I couldn’t see them.
There were no safety rails that came down. I’ve driven over
that same train track a thousand times. It looked like the sun
was shining and I just proceeded to go through it like I always
would. About the same time, I was about to cross the railroad
tracks the train was suddenly there.160 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:43, subject to the Cambridge