We call fear the feeling of anguish we feel in the face of a situation of danger or threat, whether real or imaginary, in the brain fear is the result of the activation of an adaptive alarm system in the face of danger, which leads to physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes that help us survive, so that we can better understand what causes fear in the brain.
Throughout the history of neuroscience, fear has been associated with a brain structure called the amygdala, which is located in the limbic system and plays a fundamental role in the search for and detection of danger signs, in addition to being involved in other emotions. The amygdala is usually inactive, but this changes with the least threat.
- More recently.
- Researchers have discovered that fear involves other structures and networks that together prepare our bodies to deal with the threat.
- In fact.
- A recent meta-analysis revealed that amygdala is not the most important structure of fear.
Although fear arises naturally, most of our fears come from learning. This is what they call fear conditioning, and we can do it intentionally.
This Pavlovian learning occurs after the repetitive pairing of a neutral stimulus (for example, a square) with aversive stimulus (for example, a loud noise).
Thus, neutral stimulus, which initially does not provoke reaction, ends up generating a conditioned response, such as ear coverage.
You can see the learning of fear in disorders in which the person did not previously have negative feelings associated with an event, for example, someone who took public transport, but after several panic attacks and subsequent awareness that he might die, he opposed the bus.
In short, fear activates the following areas of the brain: the insula, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Fear provokes a rapid and involuntary reaction in our brain, puts into service a complex network that allows us to initiate behaviors to escape the situation.
In other words, the insula makes us begin to sweat, our heart accelerates in preparation for flight and our legs are active to run. The anterior cingulate cortex focuses attention on danger. The insula activates physiological responses to prepare the body to escape, and the Prefrontal Cortex sets cognitive situations in place to cope (choose between asking for help or running, for example). Finally, the brain intervenes in survival.
However, if the behavior or thoughts of running away are excessive, a pattern of non-adaptive behavior can occur, as mentioned above, which can, for example, prevent you from leaving the house.
In these cases what happens is that the insula interprets as threatening a stimulus that should not be, or the cingulated cortex makes us focus on neutral stimuli, as well as tend to flee or avoid a non-threatening stimulus, under the influence of precortex. from the front. In other words, the brain anticipates damage in a harmless situation, which makes fear pathological.