Fearless woman's brain reveals key to phobias

The case of a literally unafraid woman rendered so after brain damage has helped scientists prove that a part of the brain structure regulating emotions is the key to human and animal phobia.

The 44-year-old mother of three, referred to in the journal present Biology as SM, has a rare psychological impairment due to a genetic disease called lipoid proteinosis that left holes where her amygdala — the brain’s danger detector — would normally reside.