Futurity.org » fear

Fish can scare a dragonfly to death

Michael Kennedy-Toronto — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00:52 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — The mere presence of a predator can cause enough stress to kill a dragonfly, even when the predator can’t actually get at its prey to eat it.

“How prey respond to the fear of being eaten is an important topic in ecology, and we’ve learned a great deal about how these responses affect predator and prey interactions,” says Locke Rowe, chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto.

Shocking! Being scared enhances memory

Tony Fitzpatrick-WUSTL — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:17:38 +0000

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — A jolt of fear from viewing frightening or devastating images reinforces memory, but pleasant ones don’t have the same effect.

While it may be counterintuitive, a new study finds viewing emotion-laden pictures immediately after taking a test actually enhances retention of the tested material.

Newbie neurons make fear hard to forget

Robert Sanders-UC Berkeley — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:27:27 +0000

UC BERKELEY (US) — When faced with a fearful situation, newborn neurons are able to produce a blank slate to create a strong imprint of the memory.

The findings have implications for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other problems caused by faulty regulation of emotional memory.

Why ‘close’ causes some to panic

Carol Clark-Emory — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:03:15 +0000

EMORY (US) — People with a distorted sense of personal space are more likely to experience claustrophobic fear, new research shows.

“We’ve found that people who are higher in claustrophobic fear have an exaggerated sense of the near space surrounding them,” says Emory University psychologist Stella Lourenco, who led the study scheduled for publication in the journal Cognition.

Avoiding fear hikes soldiers’ PTSD risk

Tim Green-U. Texas — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:17:15 +0000

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — Looking only briefly at expressions of fear may indicate a susceptibility to post traumatic stress
disorder, a finding particularly concerning for soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Through a series of eye-tracking experiments, researchers found soldiers who only glanced at faces of fear are less psychologically resilient after stressful combat-zone experiences than those who gaze longer at the same images.

Paving the way from nose to noggin

Louis Bergeron-Stanford — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:10:39 +0000

STANFORD (US) — A new technique that traces neural pathways across the brain is offering insight into how the brain and nose work together to sniff out fear.

It’s a complex process that starts with the scent being picked up by specific receptors in the nose. But until now it wasn’t clear exactly how these scent signals proceeded from the nose to the brain for neural processing.

The case of the fear-free brain

John Riehl-Iowa — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:49:40 +0000

U. IOWA (US) — Spiders, snakes, and slasher flicks—even public speaking—failed to arouse feelings of terror in a woman whose amygdala was destroyed. She simply was unable to be afraid.

A case study of the patient—reported in the journal Current Biology—pinpoints the amygdala as fear central in the brain. The discovery could improve treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety conditions, say researchers.

Should I stay (safe) or should I go?

Molly McElroy-UW — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:17:22 +0000

U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — Instinctively knowing how to avert danger and stay safe—or not—may depend on a brain area known as the amygdala in both humans and animals.

A study with rats—and one nasty LEGO predator—sheds light on how rats weigh their odds when trying to retrieve food pellets. Neuroscientists studied how the amygdale—known to be an important brain area for perceiving and reacting to fear—was involved in the rats’ decisions to risk their safety for food. The findings are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brain rides seesaw of fear

Deborah Williams-Hedges-Caltech — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:04:05 +0000

CALTECH (US) — Fear begins in your brain, and it is there—specifically in the amygdala—that it is controlled, processed, and let out of the gate to kick off the body’s response.

Researchers have uncovered new clues about how this kickoff occurs by beginning to dissect the neural circuitry of fear. They describe in this week’s issue of the journal Nature a microcircuit in the amygdala that controls, or “gates,” the outflow of fear from that region of the brain.

Erase fear at the molecular level

Dennis O'Shea-JHU — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:27:29 +0000

JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — Researchers working with mice discovered that they can permanently erase traumatic memories by removing a protein from the region of the brain responsible for recalling fear.

Their report on a molecular means of erasing fear memories in rodents appears this week in Science Express.