Fear Mechanisms

  You’re walking. It’s dark outside. You’re on your way home, passing through a residential area that is close to your apartment. The streetlights are unusually out.

In a split second, the tranquility of the night is shattered. A futile metallic noise nearby catches your attention. You freeze for a few seconds. With your phone’s flashlight turned on, you direct the beam of light toward the source of the noise. The cold air creates a misty screen beneath the projected light. A man stands there, motionless.

In no time, everything changes within your body. Your heart rate quickens, breathing becomes faster, blood pressure rises, and the vessels around your muscles dilate. Your attention is at its peak. You’re ready to take action.

Although the man didn’t threaten you back then, the light from your phone revealed a glimpse of his icy eyes watching you. Something instinctive and primal inside you senses imminent danger. It was fear that prepared you to react. For the best.

To elaborate on the subject of fear, we need to understand its origins.

Information is primarily sensory. We experience something through, let’s say, our sense of hearing. The alarming sound is transmitted to the thalamus, which relays the message to the amygdala, a critical orchestrator for the processing of emotional experiences, part of the limbic system.

Then, it is relayed to the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone into the bloodstream. The sympathetic nervous system is, in the process, also activated. They both target the adrenal gland, where cortisol and certain catecholamines, such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, are released. These hormones induce the physiological reactions described above in our fearful human.

Although the involvement of the amygdala in frightening situations is highly complex and cannot be fully described, I would like to emphasize two additional aspects.

Firstly, it interacts with the hippocampus, facilitating the encoding of event memories. This allows for consistent responses to similar situations in the future.

Secondly, the amygdala is capable of hijacking our brain when the fear response is intense. As it is somewhat of an emotional figure, it is irrational and quite spontaneous. Its reaction may be inadequate if the brain does not intervene to find a more rational solution. The prefrontal cortex, in contrast, is a rational figure that enables us to interpret emotions and make conscientious decisions.

When we are overwhelmed by fear, the amygdala is strongly stimulated, while the processing in the prefrontal cortex is temporarily slowed down. This results in difficulties with speaking, for example. The amygdala, in a way, disregards the advice of the prefrontal cortex and triggers rapid impulsive actions, which can be categorized into three types of responses.

1 | Flee – escaping from the danger zone

2 | Fight – confronting the threat, either physically or through verbal communication

3 | Freeze – staying still and remaining silent until the danger has passed

The idea behind these mechanisms is quite obvious. Humans have an innate ability to protect themselves from threats in order to maximize their chances of survival, which is logical from an evolutionary perspective.

I would explain this evolutionary concept in the following way: When faced with a threat, the most advantageous behavior is the one that guarantees survival, thereby increasing the likelihood of passing on your genes to future generations. This phenomenon is known as natural selection. However, there is a discrepancy here. Society has evolved very rapidly, whereas the evolution of genes keeps the same slow pace. This raises the question: Aren’t our fear-based behaviors, especially in social contexts, somewhat outdated today? We cannot talk about fear as a survival mechanism when it comes to summoning the courage to initiate a conversation with a new person, for instance. This introduces the next chapter.

To elaborate on the subject of fear, we need to understand its origins.

Information is primarily sensory. We experience something through, let’s say, our sense of hearing. The alarming sound is transmitted to the thalamus, which relays the message to the amygdala, a critical orchestrator for the processing of emotional experiences, part of the limbic system.

Then, it is relayed to the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone into the bloodstream. The sympathetic nervous system is, in the process, also activated. They both target the adrenal gland, where cortisol and certain catecholamines, such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, are released. These hormones induce the physiological reactions described above in our fearful human.

Although the involvement of the amygdala in frightening situations is highly complex and cannot be fully described, I would like to emphasize two additional aspects.

Firstly, it interacts with the hippocampus, facilitating the encoding of event memories. This allows for consistent responses to similar situations in the future.

Secondly, the amygdala is capable of hijacking our brain when the fear response is intense. As it is somewhat of an emotional figure, it is irrational and quite spontaneous. Its reaction may be inadequate if the brain does not intervene to find a more rational solution. The prefrontal cortex, in contrast, is a rational figure that enables us to interpret emotions and make conscientious decisions.

When we are overwhelmed by fear, the amygdala is strongly stimulated, while the processing in the prefrontal cortex is temporarily slowed down. This results in difficulties with speaking, for example. The amygdala, in a way, disregards the advice of the prefrontal cortex and triggers rapid impulsive actions, which can be categorized into three types of responses.

1 | Flee – escaping from the danger zone

2 | Fight – confronting the threat, either physically or through verbal communication

3 | Freeze – staying still and remaining silent until the danger has passed

The idea behind these mechanisms is quite obvious. Humans have an innate ability to protect themselves from threats in order to maximize their chances of survival, which is logical from an evolutionary perspective.

I would explain this evolutionary concept in the following way: When faced with a threat, the most advantageous behavior is the one that guarantees survival, thereby increasing the likelihood of passing on your genes to future generations. This phenomenon is known as natural selection. However, there is a discrepancy here. Society has evolved very rapidly, whereas the evolution of genes keeps the same slow pace. This raises the question: Aren’t our fear-based behaviors, especially in social contexts, somewhat outdated today? We cannot talk about fear as a survival mechanism when it comes to summoning the courage to initiate a conversation with a new person, for instance. This introduces the next chapter.

To elaborate on the subject of fear, we need to understand its origins.

Information is primarily sensory. We experience something through, let’s say, our sense of hearing. The alarming sound is transmitted to the thalamus, which relays the message to the amygdala, a critical orchestrator for the processing of emotional experiences, part of the limbic system.

Then, it is relayed to the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone into the bloodstream. The sympathetic nervous system is, in the process, also activated. They both target the adrenal gland, where cortisol and certain catecholamines, such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, are released. These hormones induce the physiological reactions described above in our fearful human.

Although the involvement of the amygdala in frightening situations is highly complex and cannot be fully described, I would like to emphasize two additional aspects.

Firstly, it interacts with the hippocampus, facilitating the encoding of event memories. This allows for consistent responses to similar situations in the future.

Secondly, the amygdala is capable of hijacking our brain when the fear response is intense. As it is somewhat of an emotional figure, it is irrational and quite spontaneous. Its reaction may be inadequate if the brain does not intervene to find a more rational solution. The prefrontal cortex, in contrast, is a rational figure that enables us to interpret emotions and make conscientious decisions.

When we are overwhelmed by fear, the amygdala is strongly stimulated, while the processing in the prefrontal cortex is temporarily slowed down. This results in difficulties with speaking, for example. The amygdala, in a way, disregards the advice of the prefrontal cortex and triggers rapid impulsive actions, which can be categorized into three types of responses.

1 | Flee – escaping from the danger zone

2 | Fight – confronting the threat, either physically or through verbal communication

3 | Freeze – staying still and remaining silent until the danger has passed

The idea behind these mechanisms is quite obvious. Humans have an innate ability to protect themselves from threats in order to maximize their chances of survival, which is logical from an evolutionary perspective.

I would explain this evolutionary concept in the following way: When faced with a threat, the most advantageous behavior is the one that guarantees survival, thereby increasing the likelihood of passing on your genes to future generations. This phenomenon is known as natural selection. However, there is a discrepancy here. Society has evolved very rapidly, whereas the evolution of genes keeps the same slow pace. This raises the question: Aren’t our fear-based behaviors, especially in social contexts, somewhat outdated today? We cannot talk about fear as a survival mechanism when it comes to summoning the courage to initiate a conversation with a new person, for instance. This introduces the next chapter.