Fear

Fear

By Collin Rodriguez, Sean Rule, and Alan Winder

Sensory Cortex -interprets sensory data

Thalamus - decides where to send incoming sensory data (from eyes, ears, mouth, skin)

Hypothalamus - activates "fight or flight" response

Amygdala - decodes emotions; determines possible threat; stores fear memories

Hippocampus - stores and retrieves conscious memories; processes sets of stimuli to establish context

The sudden flood of epinephrine, norepinephrine and dozens of other hormones causes changes in the body that include:

-heart rate and blood pressure increase

-pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible

-veins in skin constrict to send more blood to major muscle groups (responsible for the "chill" sometimes associated with fear -- less blood in the skin to keep it warm)

-blood-glucose level increases

-muscles tense up, energized by adrenaline and glucose (responsible for goose bumps -- when tiny muscles attached to each hair on surface of skin tense up, the hairs are forced upright, pulling skin with them)

-smooth muscle relaxes in order to allow more oxygen into the lungs

-nonessential systems (like digestion and immune system) shut down to allow more energy for emergency functions

-trouble focusing on small tasks (brain is directed to focus only on big picture in order to determine where threat is coming from)

• If we couldn't be afraid, we wouldn't survive for long

Conditioning is why some people fear dogs as if they were fire-breathing monsters, while others consider them part of the family.

Little Albert Experiment (John B. Watson)

• Scientists allowed Albert to play with a white rat, something he did not fear
• Then they added a loud noise whenever he touched the rat, to which he usually responded with crying
• After several trials with these two stimuli, the scientists took out the sound and presented Albert with just the rat.
• He was distressed, even without the sound because he had been conditioned to associate the rat with a loud, and unpleasant sound

2005 reveals the most common fears of teenagers in the United States.

Terrorist attacks

Spiders

Death

Failure

War

Heights

Crime/Violence

Being alone

The future

Nuclear war

YOLO

• This was an experiment performed by John B. Watson.
• The goal of the experiment was to condition a child to fear a stimulus that would normally not be feared

• "Introduction of a loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response), a natural response.
• Introduction of a rat (neutral stimulus) paired with the loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response).
• Successive introductions of a rat (conditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (conditioned response). Here, learning is demonstrated."

There are two paths involved in the fear response: The low road is quick and messy, while the high road takes more time and delivers a more precise interpretation of events.

The Low Road is "take no chances."

The High Road is much more thoughtful.

Biology behind fear

What is it?

How does it work?

How can you conquer it?