Fear has been and still is an important negative emotion. This is because if we do not fear impending danger, there is a chance that we will not survive. Even though we can be fearful of harmless stimuli at times, the times when something is harmful must be acted upon in order to ensure survival. Evolutionarily, it is better to have a false fear response than a missed response that could result in death: a higher cost to an organism than any false alarm (Stirling, Greskovich, & Johnson, 2014). The importance of fear is evolutionarily clear; hence, it is important to study it. There have been a number of approaches taken to study fear: the neurobiological approach is one of them. This essay will be tracing a chain of neurobiological events which
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Fear in the context of anxiety disorders can be defined as a negative emotion that serves as a response to a present threat. On the other hand, anxiety is a preparatory response to contexts in which a threat might occur (Davis, 2006). The integration of both anxiety and fear in anxiety disorders has been found to send the activity level of the amygdala into overdrive, as noted in an fMRI study conducted by Sehlmeye et al. (2011). Moors and de Houwer (2006) looked at one such anxiety disorder: arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. They found that participants with arachnophobia showed a larger automatic fear response to both spiders that were alive and pictures of spiders when compared to the control group. This heightened automatic fear response was traced back to a high level of activation in the …show more content…
Cortisol’s function is to increase the fear response, while testosterone’s function is to decrease it. These increases and decreases produce a balance which leads to a balance of activation in the amygdala of a given individual (Honk et al., 2004; Putman, Hermans, & van Honk., 2007). In parallel with the amygdala, there are adverse impacts when this balance is tipped. Low levels of cortisol, and higher levels of testosterone, have been found to be associated with psychopathy. Individuals with psychopathy tend to exhibit lower levels of fear when compared to control groups (Loomans, Tulen, De Rijke, & Van Marle, 2016). On the other hand, high levels of cortisol have been found in people with anxiety disorders (van Ast, Vervliet, & Kindt, 2012). Similarly, as highlighted earlier, higher amygdala activation can lead to anxiety disorders, such as arachnophobia. This is because cortisol is one such hormone which impacts the activation of the amygdala. Generally, the more the cortisol, the higher the amygdala activation; thus, the higher the fear response (Armbruster et al.,
Fear in the context of anxiety disorders can be defined as a negative emotion that serves as a response to a present threat. On the other hand, anxiety is a preparatory response to contexts in which a threat might occur (Davis, 2006). The integration of both anxiety and fear in anxiety disorders has been found to send the activity level of the amygdala into overdrive, as noted in an fMRI study conducted by Sehlmeye et al. (2011). Moors and de Houwer (2006) looked at one such anxiety disorder: arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. They found that participants with arachnophobia showed a larger automatic fear response to both spiders that were alive and pictures of spiders when compared to the control group. This heightened automatic fear response was traced back to a high level of activation in the …show more content…
Cortisol’s function is to increase the fear response, while testosterone’s function is to decrease it. These increases and decreases produce a balance which leads to a balance of activation in the amygdala of a given individual (Honk et al., 2004; Putman, Hermans, & van Honk., 2007). In parallel with the amygdala, there are adverse impacts when this balance is tipped. Low levels of cortisol, and higher levels of testosterone, have been found to be associated with psychopathy. Individuals with psychopathy tend to exhibit lower levels of fear when compared to control groups (Loomans, Tulen, De Rijke, & Van Marle, 2016). On the other hand, high levels of cortisol have been found in people with anxiety disorders (van Ast, Vervliet, & Kindt, 2012). Similarly, as highlighted earlier, higher amygdala activation can lead to anxiety disorders, such as arachnophobia. This is because cortisol is one such hormone which impacts the activation of the amygdala. Generally, the more the cortisol, the higher the amygdala activation; thus, the higher the fear response (Armbruster et al.,