Fear, The Emotional Brain Cornered

Years ago, a terrible tragedy occurred for which fear was undoubtedly responsible. Fourteen-year-old Matilda Crabtree wanted to play a prank on her parents by hiding in a closet to scare them when they returned home that night.

Her parents believed that Matilda was going to spend the night at a friend’s house. Therefore, when, when they returned home, they heard noises, the father did not hesitate to take his gun, go to the girl’s bedroom and try to guess what was happening.

Then, in a panic, the man shot his daughter when she ran out of the closet to give them the surprise he had prepared. A few hours later, Matilda Crabtree passed away.

When fear corners us

It was fear that made the father imagine that there was a thief in the house ; the one who pushed him to pick up the gun and go around his house in search of an intruder who never existed; the one who made him shoot quickly without seeing who was in front of him.

Fear and a flood of emotions predisposed a father to protect his family. That itself destroyed her. An emotional reaction as natural as it was necessary turned what could have been an endearing family scene into tragedy.

The emotional circuits of fear respond to biological patterns that have been developing for more than fifty thousand generations. This same emotion makes us act so quickly that it often corners us.

Thus, as outlined in the story at the head of the article, our impulses are designed to help us survive and protect our loved ones; which, as we have seen, we do not always achieve.

Fear has the power to run through us in an instant. The blood seems to paralyze in our face and flows to our extremities to make us run or act quickly.

In our brain a hormonal response is triggered that puts our body on alert, disturbing us and helping us pay attention to what is considered a threat to respond appropriately.

The neural circuits of fear

Without a doubt, fear is one of the most remarkable emotions in our evolution. This statement takes on special relevance at a time when our daily lives are overwhelmed by nervousness, anguish and worries, as well as pathologies such as panic attacks, phobias, generalized anxiety, etc.

But what happens in our brain when something scares us? What neural circuits are activated and how do they do it? What objective do they have? We will try to answer all these questions below, sequentially.

• When our senses perceive something potentially threatening around us, they make use of the cerebral highways that communicate with our brain.
• These emotional highways lead directly to the brainstem and thalamus.

Once the information reaches these areas, the communication pathways quickly branch to the amygdala and hippocampus, on the one hand, and to the specialized cortex, where the sounds, images, or sensations that have put us in touch are examined in more detail. alert.

• The hippocampus, a fundamental region of our memory, quickly compares those stimuli that have alerted us with those that it remembers having heard, seen or felt at other times.

In other words, our hippocampus tries to figure out whether it is familiar or not.

• Meanwhile, the auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile or taste cortex tries to understand where what has bothered us comes from.

A hypothesis is developed that is sent quickly to the amygdala and the hippocampus, structures that try to conclude if we can be calm or we have to take action.

• If the conclusion is reassuring, alertness is paralyzed. If, on the contrary, it is not, the amygdala sends an alarm signal that disposes of our nervous system to respond.

• As Daniel Goleman states, “the reception of all kinds of signals turns the amygdala into a sentinel that continually scrutinizes all sensory experience.”
• The brain secretes different substances (corticotropic hormone, norepinephrine, dopamine), which allows our body to prepare for action.
• These substances make our muscles tense, our faces take on the expression of fear, our hearts race, and our senses lurk.

Faced with this sequence of surprise, fear unfolds in a second. This is the reason why our emotional architecture sometimes does not leave room for our consciousness, since our evolutionary system predisposes us to respond quickly.

One second is what, perhaps, could have helped Matilda’s father to realize that it was his daughter who was in front of him and not a thief. However, a second would also have been enough for a thief to attack him and end his life and that of his wife.

Fear is necessary

Fear may seem like a devastating emotion to us, but in reality, it is a necessary reaction for our survival. Let’s not forget that our nature is wise and has endowed us with multiple tools to survive.

However, it is important to learn how to handle it. In this way, we will avoid dramatic outcomes that could have been avoided.