Science of Fear
Fear effects everyone, regardless of if you want it to or not. Whether it’s fueling the strength to protect yourself and run from a dangerous situation or making you react unnecessarily to something as safe as a balloon popping, the brain fires hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to make sure you are ready to face a situation.
Reacting to a Stimulus
In coming across something stressful, the brain sends the information from the senses to reach the thalamus where it is connected to both the reptilian brain (which still relies on animal-like instinct) and the advanced conscious brain (a far more developed section of the brain). The sensory information is processed in the cortex and labelled accordingly.
The more analytical side of the brain (the advanced conscious brain) determines the
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Within seconds, she reached for the mask and cried for help. After the researchers removed the mask, her entire body went rigid, her toes and fingers flexed taut towards the ceiling and her skin was flushed. Later, she recorded the experience as the ‘number one, worst feeling ever’. To test these findings, Justin Feinstein at the University of Iowa and his colleagues tested a pair of identical twins who had similar amygdala damage. The result was the same; both twins felt fear when they inhaled the carbon dioxide. Scientists were very puzzled with this unexpected outcome. Multiple theories were created to try to explain the result including: if the subject was living a fear-free life, how can they be sure that what they feel is the same feeling of fear as the rest of us? These new findings suggest that the amygdala might not actually be the ‘fear central’ as scientists first
Fearful situations make the brain release chemicals like dopamine, adrenaline, and endorphins. In Allegra Ringo’s “Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?”, an interview with Dr. Margee Kerr, who earned her PhD in sociology at The University of Pittsburgh, and wrote Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear, explaining the psychological process in
Fear is a chemical chain reaction in the brain. It is in the part of the brain that allows us to communicate and to speak with other people ("Layton, Julia"). The idea is an autonomic response in the brain with many parts of the brain involved. Fear starts with a scary stimulus and ends with a fight or flight response telling the human to fight back or run away. It starts with two processes the quick and messy way, and the clear and slow way ("Layton, Julia"). The quick way is when you are panicking and out of breath and the clear way takes a while and is when you calm down and realize it was nothing. Both of the processes happen simultaneously ("Layton, Julia"). The brain uses your blood stream and nervous system to create fear. When your muscles tighten and your heart races, you are probably in a state of fear. Without fear you would walk into traffic or pick up poisonous snakes. Fear saves our lives ("Layton,
Its very sad to say that Fear is one of the most effect thing in a person mind set. In a world full of humans maybe about 8.5 of humans out of 10 people are terrified. It may not seem
This evidence, along with other studies with similar findings, has made the amygdala the target of much anxiety-disorder research (5), but it continues to raise the question of mechanism. The answer, partial though it may be, appears to lie in classic
The brain can process fear when it reacts with its fight or flight type response.
Two structures in the brain work independently and with each other to impact memory and emotions: the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is linked to fear-conditioning, while the hippocampus is linked to episodic memories, which are those memories that a person can recall whenever wanted [1]. An experiment was performed to demonstrate the independence of the two structures from each other which involved patients with lesions in the amygdala and patients with lesions in the hippocampus. Researchers designed a fear-condition wherein a blue patch applied to the wrist initiated a shock. They found that patients with lesions in the amygdala had no physiological response to the conditioned stimulus (the blue patch) [2], whereas patients with lesions in the hippocampus demonstrated appropriate
When this happened, scientist were sure that amygdala was the key to the response of fear in
The Involvement of Fear Fear can be described and characterized as being one of the most distressing and expressive emotions in the body. Not only does it assist in the formation of facial expressions as it utilizes our many facial muscles, but it also seems to trigger an intense physiological alteration to our body conditions as well. Whether you are from a Westernized culture or from a rare untouched civilization, the knowledge and interpretation of fear remains the same (Ekman & Friesen, 1971). It is an emotion that every mammal elicits and expresses at some point in their lives in response to an undesired stimulus. My experience with fear undeniably originates from various life events.
According to a translational neuroscientist , he stated that the reason for the brain to react with it stimulus response is by a neurotransmitter called dopamine, it helps to control our brain reward. He also explain how the process works. There are two roadways for the brain. One is low road and the other is the high road. The low road is responsible for what you see, smell and hear, it signals the brain to react the fear. It send your body to scream, run , or have your heart beat fast while the high road which is the cortical center in your brain to signals something that you already use to like i've seen that spider before so therefore I’m not going to be afraid.
According to the article by Schaffhausen, the brain has two basic requirements to learn a fear. The first one is the sensory systems, such as the visual system for a light or the tactile system for a shock. The second area is the amygdala as a critical region for fear conditioning. “The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped cluster of nuclei set deep in the temporal lobe that seems ideally positioned as the locus of fear learning. It receives input through its lateral nucleus from cortical areas and the thalamus, which is a key sensory relay station within the brain, and it sends output via its central nucleus to a variety of brain regions that are known to mediate fear responses, such as the hypothalamus.” (Schaffhausen.2005). The crucial role for the amygdala in fear conditioning that if it is destroyed, it will still show a fear response but fail to learn the association between the sensory systems, such as the light and the brain regions that are known to control fear responses. Consequently, the amygdala is a key structure for fear
Fear is something every single human being has at some point in their life. When you are in dangerous, threatening, or scary situations, fear is what your body will feel. It is the ability to identify danger and make a choice to either confront that fear or flee from the situation like for example, if you were to break a vase, you would hide from your parents. That choice is completely up to the victim, and depends on the person. Although fear is handled differently by every person, it is a common emotion that everyone feels. Some seek out to overcome their fears, and seek the feeling of adrenaline they get from overcoming. Others flee the situation and don't think twice about trying to overcome their fear. In worst case scenarios people freeze
Did you know that 75% of people suffer from glossophobia. There are usually 5 kids in every grade who suffer from it. Glossophobia is very common, especially in a school or at a job. It is more common in adults than children. You may experience glossophobia before a performance or speech. When we first sense fear our sensory organs gather information and send it to the thalamus to get processed. The information then gets sent to the amygdala. The amygdala activates our brain stem. It triggers our bodies freeze response. The amygdala also signals nerves that control facial muscles. The amygdala also signals the hypothalamus. Starting our fight or flight response. Our heart rate increases, blood pressure, and sweat.
Fear is a feeling induced by experience, perceived danger, or watching a frightening traumatic accident. The fear responses arise from the perception of danger and ultimately a change in behaviour, such as fleeing, or hiding or from perceived traumatic events. Every person has fears and different fears may be different adaptations that have been useful in our evolutionary past. I have fears too, and sometime, I feel embarrassed to intersperse my fear with others.
Like any animal on this planet, we feel fear. Fear for self-preservation, or fear for others. And sometimes theres just a raw, and completely irrational fear that can control us if we let it. Fear is something we can all feel, just some of us have more control then others. Some people will use fear to there advantage. They'll use it to control those who feel it. Fear can cause wide spread panic or rash decisions. But if you control that fear, if you manage it, you'll hold the power others may try to weld. Now there is the frantic, abnormal fear we feel. Fear of monsters, or ghosts, or our own feelings or memories. We play with and use fear for our own entertainment. Like with movies, books, plays. We also have amusment rides for thrill seekers.
Fear can create an instinctual response to perceived danger. A good example is of the time my husband and I were alone on a long hike in the jungles of Belize and came upon a fer-de-lance snake that would most likely have killed us with its bite. Without any time passing, my instinct of fight or flight emerged and I pushed my husband out of the way, telling him to run as I did. Also, in an instinctual state of fear, someone can perform tasks they did not think were possible such as being able to lift a