“…The amygdala, therefore, is likely to be a structure impacted by perinatal iron deficiency at some level, with adverse consequences for the processing of the emotional value of a stimulus. Golub and colleagues (2007), for instance, found that prenatally iron-deprived juvenile Rhesus monkeys demonstrated less behavioral inhibition in new and challenging environments than did controls, suggesting the absence (or at least a reduction) in the expression of negative emotions (i.e., fear and anxiety); emotions that are normally expressed in encounters with novel objects or environments but which can be disrupted by damage to the amygdala (Izquierdo, Suda, & Murray, 2005; Mason, Capitanio, Machado, Mendoza, & Amaral, 2006). Thus, group differences in the processing of emotional signal values may reflect, in part, alterations in amygdala function and connections between the amygdala and the neocortex, in addition to deviations in the development of memory-related neural circuitry.…”