Science is getting a grip on people's fears. Scientists say they now know better what is going on inside our brains when a spook jumps out and scares us. Knowing how fear rules the brain should lead to treatments for a major medical problem: when irrational fears go haywire.
Millions of people suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A Harvard Medical School study estimated the annual cost to the U.S.economy in 1999 at roughly $ 42 billion.
Fear is a basic primal emotion that is key to the evolutionary survival. It is something that human beings share with animals. Genetics plays a big role in the development of overwhelming - and needless - fear, psychologists say. But so do traumatic events.
Scientists figure they can improve the fear-dampening process by learning how fear runs through the brain and body.
The fear hot-spot is the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the deep brain. The amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the deep brain. The amygdala is not responsible for all of people's fear response, but it is like the burglar alarm that connects to everything else, said Elizabeth Phelps, Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University - AP
With grateful thanks to: AP and The Hindu (Madurai edn, November 1, 2007)
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