Sweaty palms, rapid heart rate, muscle spasms. Your skin prickles and your stomach churns. When fear disappears, we can be left with feelings of happiness. Is this just the relief of survival – or something more?
Fight or flight
The amygdala, a conductor-like bundle of neurons in the center of the brain, controls the fear response. Read also : YMCA presents the new Whole Health Coordinator | News, Sport, Work. In a dangerous situation, the amygdala stimulates the hypothalamus, which activates two systems in the body – the immune system and the body’s immune system – causing a flood of hormones and triggering the response- or-flight.
Adrenaline improves the alertness of the body. It speeds up the heart rate and diverts blood from the heart to the muscles needed for movement. Cortisol increases blood pressure. The blood vessels surrounding the vital organs dilate, flooding them with oxygen and nutrients. Breathing speeds up, delivering fresh oxygen to the brain, while blood glucose levels rise, increasing body energy – ready for action.
“Although we understand some aspects of neural networks and how they coordinate behavior, there is still much that is not known,” said Dr Charlotte Lawrenson, a neuroscientist at the University of Bristol.
When we are exposed to emotional stimuli or a potentially threatening environment, he said, two pathways are activated in the brain. The first is fast. Information is sent to the sensory thalamus and then to the amygdala, allowing for immediate action on the fear response.
The second is a slow, indirect way. Information is sent from the thalamus to the cortex, the outer part of the brain, related to thinking, thinking and memory. This evaluates the threat and allows us to know if we are in real danger.
“We don’t know exactly where in the brain the feeling of fear occurs,” said Lawrenson, “but it may be due to the coordinated activation of a fear network that includes many parts of the brain.”
If the threat is expected to be real, other parts of the brain will be activated to initiate a whole body response to the threat. It includes the periaqueductal gray, which coordinates the antinociceptive, autonomic and behavioral responses to stress and injury, blocking the perception of pain through sensory neurons and kickstarting the involuntary physiological process and response action.
“The memory of [the danger] will be transferred and stored in the hippocampus,” added Lawrenson’s researcher, Dr Elena Paci, “so that we can remember and recognize the threat to the next meeting.”
A window on our collective concerns
A window on our collective fears
Fear is an ancient emotion and horror stories are rooted in human history. In ancient times, horror stories were used to teach children about the dangers they might face, such as wolves and other wild animals. Today, the cinema offers a window into the wider concerns of society. In the 1954 sci-fi film, Godzilla was created by nuclear radiation, showing the shared anxiety about the second atomic attack on the world.
Horror movies often show technology – robots that rebel against their creator like the Westworld hosts, or killer AI like Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Skynet in The Terminator. On the same subject : Do you need a library update? Aesop gives away free books by LGBTQ + authors. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger made their appearance with the rise of serial killers in the public eye.
In March 2020, when the disease went into hyperdrive, the images of Contagion – about a terrible disease – were raised. Why did people want to watch a horror film about something so real to them at that time? Professor Marc Malmdorf-Andersen and his colleagues think that scary movies can teach how to deal with uncertainty.
Cast into an unpredictable world
Navigating an unpredictable world
An associate professor at Denmark’s Aarhus University, Malmdorf-Andersen studies the cognitive processes involved in play and learning. Read also : Why do some distrust science, and what can scientists do about it?. “Spending time in these special places can almost be thought of as an opportunity to write your own prescription for worst-case scenarios,” he said.
A study on horror fans during the Covid pandemic found that people who liked watching horror films had stronger mental health than non-horror fans.
“They have, in some ways, been exposed to similar scenarios and may use that experience to navigate new, uncertain realities,” Malmdorf-Andersen said. “It’s possible that recreational forms of fear in general can help improve emotion regulation and coping skills.”
The joy of fear, says Malmdorf-Andersen, makes sense if you see it as a “game system”. “Enjoyment of horror movies seems to be related to aggression in unpredictable situations,” he said. “In many ways, the children’s game is characterized by finding a lot of uncertainty, medium shock, in an effort to understand them.”
In fact, researchers at the University of Exeter say that when children’s play involves danger and fear, it can be a protective factor against anxiety. Play, says Malmdorf-Andersen, is a strategy for learning how to handle unfamiliar situations and express uncertainty.
The sweet spot
To study the relationship between happiness and fear, Malmdorf-Andersen and his colleagues at Aarhus University’s Recreational Fear Lab studied a group of people who went to a visitor theater. There, guests willingly sign up to be terrorized by brain-munching zombies, chainsaw-wielding maniacs and child-eaters. The researchers filmed the guests, monitored their hearts and asked them what they felt at different times during the experience.
“At the Dystopia Haunted House there are about 70-100 actors every night,” said Malmdorf-Andersen, “and a special theater department. They challenge their guests in many different ways – Hate, fear, jump scares, boredom, loneliness, in the dark, claustrophobia… they love just getting out of their comfort zone.
“Our results suggest that there may be a ‘sweet spot’ between fear and happiness,” Malmdorf-Andersen said. “It’s the right place that’s not a terrible story, but it’s not the best. This beautiful place seems to be the most interesting.”
In that place, the flood of fear immediately followed by relief results in the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain – endorphins and dopamine – rewarding you with a rush of euphoria.
When fear goes too far
However, it is important to remember that everyone is different. We all have a unique sense of what we find scary – and it’s a fine line between harmless fun and true horror. Too much fear can lead to depression and abuse. Around the world, about 275 million people suffer from anxiety disorders, which can be progressive and debilitating and affect a person’s life.
“Different people have different activation levels [of the brain],” Paci said.
What can be a pleasure for one person can be very dangerous for another. So be scared to be scared this Halloween – but just the right amount.
