Brain surgery ‘cures’ man of arachnophobia, triggers aversion to music

British doctors say a brain surgery patient was cured of arachnophobia following an operation, but developed a temporary aversion to music. When the patient recovered from surgery, he found that his previous intense fear of spiders had completely disappeared, and instead he started to find them “fascinating”. But the patient developed a temporary aversion to music, which dissipated with time.

It’s like when you see a snake and you jump back in alarm, but when you look back you realise it’s just a stick. That’s your quick panic response: it isn’t very accurate but it’s necessary for basic survival.

Dr Nick Medford, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Dr Nick Medford, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), made the discovery after observing a patient who had started having seizures and was found to have swollen tissue in part of his brain. As a result, he had to have his damaged left amygdala – which helps to process emotions such as fear, anger, and pleasure, and determine what memories are stored – removed. Dr Medford said he believes the phobia could have been cured while leaving normal response fear intact because humans have two different types of fear response. On removing the amygdala, some of the neural pathways specific to this quick panic response may have been eliminated, but the parts responsible for generalised fear could have remained intact.

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