Woman experiences case of hyper-empathy after brain surgery
Stunning researchers, a woman who had her amygdala removed 13
years ago has been experiencing what has been described as
hyper-empathy, which is the ability to recognize another
person’s emotions. The especially unusual part of the story,
according to researchers, is that the amygdala is involved in
recognizing emotions, and removing it would be expected to make
it harder rather than easier for a person to read others'
emotions.  The woman had parts of her temporal lobe, including
the amygdala, removed from one side of the brain to treat a
severe form of medication-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy
(TLE). After the surgery, the woman reported that her seizures
had stopped, but that she started to have this over-powering
feeling of empathy, which has persisted for the last 13 years.
Although patients with epilepsy treated with surgery have been
known to experience new psychological issues afterward, such as
depression or anxiety, this case of hyper-