Oh this is one of my favorite territories. Seeing "amygdalae"
   just gave me a happy chill. Never used the plural form. I call
   it the "push from the amygdala". One of my favorite "brain
   circuits" (to stick with the computer/brain metaphor, which is
   hard to avoid using 'cause it's handy) - is the way the amygdala
   can give a stronger 'push' to the prefrontal cortex than the
   very weak way the prefrontal cortex can give back to the
   amygdala. Hence: your reasoning is driven by emotion, to put it
   simply. You can use your reasoning to control your emotion but
   the connection is ... wispier and takes training to strengthen
   the connection. That's my simplified take on it. Somewhere in my
   files I have the relative speeds (more data metaphors) for the
   amygdala --> prefrontal cortex vs the prefrontal cortex -->
   amydala. It's a striking difference and explains a lot for me.