Fight or Flight: The Science Behind Fear

Kieri Karpa, reporter

Pupils dilated, blood rushing, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping; and it all happens in a matter of seconds.

The fight or flight reflex, a psychological and physical reaction to fear, is the cause of these symptoms. Fear is caused by anything that overactivates a part of the brain called called the amygdala.

Drew Kessier, a doctorate student at Georgia Tech, demonstrates a computer generated virtual reality headset used in treating acrophobia, the fear of heights in Atlanta on Monday, March 27, 1995. Patients stand on a platform with a railing to hold onto as images that simulate them rising and falling are displayed on their headsets and on the monitor behind them. (AP Photo/Tannen Maury)
Drew Kessier, a doctorate student at Georgia Tech, demonstrates a computer generated virtual reality headset used in treating acrophobia, the fear of heights in Atlanta on Monday, March 27, 1995. Patients stand on a platform with a railing to hold onto as images that simulate them rising and falling are displayed on their headsets and on the monitor behind them. (AP Photo/Tannen Maury)

Dr. James McGaugh, professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, said, “The amygdala gets activated by emotional arousal, including that induced by pleasant as well as unpleasant experiences.” He explained that fear can be induced not only by unexpected negative experiences, but also by experiences that are associated with past frightening experiences.

When the amygdala encounters a stimuli, it “determines the significance of the stimulus and triggers emotional responses,” according to Serendip Studio, a website for student research papers from Bryn Mawr College.

The emotional response changes the way the body’s organs and glands work. The adrenal gland then releases adrenaline and cortisol to trigger the fight or flight reflex, McGaugh explained.

Fear is learned through “association of cues with fearful conditions,” McGaugh said. Every time the fight or flight reflex is triggered, the brain begins to associate the situation with fear, so the next time the situation comes up, the brain and body will be ready, McGaugh explained.

Being a learned emotion, it is possible to unlearn fear by “learning that something you thought to be dangerous is not,” McGaugh said.

Unlearning fears can take a long time, according to an article on Psychology Today.

The study showed that mice, when exposed to “short yet intense burst of stress-provoking stimuli,” eventually learned not to be afraid of the stimuli. However, unlearning their fear took 10 times as long as it took to learn the fear.

The human implications? A “similar model in human treatment might prove equally successful,” the article predicts.

In this Friday, July 31, 2009 photo, 13-year-old Ashley Bystrom enjoys an afternoon outside with her mother Jacquie Bystrom on their backyard tire swing at their home in Champlin, Minn. Ashley, who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), wouldn't leave her house or play outside when she was eight-years-old because of her fear of dirt and germs. At 13, she's overcome her fears and spends many afternoons outside drawing and riding her horse. She is sharing her experience with OCD at the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation Conference which begins Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Dawn Villella)
In this Friday, July 31, 2009 photo, 13-year-old Ashley Bystrom enjoys an afternoon outside with her mother Jacquie Bystrom on their backyard tire swing at their home in Champlin, Minn. Ashley, who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), wouldn’t leave her house or play outside when she was eight-years-old because of her fear of dirt and germs. At 13, she’s overcome her fears and spends many afternoons outside drawing and riding her horse. She is sharing her experience with OCD at the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation Conference which begins Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Dawn Villella)

In this method, a patient is exposed to multiple intense, short exposures to the conditions in which the fear was learned. This treatment is known as exposure therapy; however, traditional exposure therapy is not usually as prolonged as it should be.

Although this has been the best method of overcoming fear for decades, nearly half of all exposure therapy patients relapse, according to an article on the New Republic.

The article explains a new treatment for fear that Merel Kindt, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam, has found to be more effective than traditional exposure therapy.

In this treatment, Kindt pushes the patient to relive every detail of the experience that caused them fear, focusing in on the source of the fear, the article explained.

After a few minutes of reliving the fear, Kindt stops and has the patient take a single dose of propranolol, a drug usually prescribed for heart disease.

All of Kindt’s patients, so far, have had total neutralization of their fear; however, the long term effects of this treatment have not been studied as the treatment has been available for less than 10 years.

As science continues to find new ways to treat fear, Kindt “holds out the promise of a simple treatment—maybe even a permanent cure.”