FACTFILE: A basic human emotion
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Fear keeps us alive. It is one of the basic human emotions.
Emotions that exist in most cultures and from infancy on are known as basic emotions.
Anger, disgust, surprise, happiness, and sadness are considered basic emotions. Intelligence and tidiness, for example, are not.
A person begins to feel fear when the fear-causing stimulus is carried through the limbic system situated in the frontal and middle lobes from the thalamus to the corpus amygdaloideum.
Blood begins to flow into the large muscles, the pulse accelerates, the brain pumps adrenaline into the blood stream and the palms of the hands begin to perspire.
The level of stimulation increases as the autonomous nervous system begins to prepare the body for a possible escape or struggle. Also a momentary period of being frozen in place is a reaction to fear.
A fear reaction can be extremely fast. Fear is automatic when a person flinches when mistaking a stick on the ground for a snake. When a figure approaching in a dark alley causes tingling excitement, the reaction is a result of learning, and the process much more complicated.
If the corpus amygdaloideum is damaged, a person may lack some of the fear reactions entirely. For example a monkey with damage in this part of the brain might hold a snake that would normally cause fear.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.8.2004
More on this subject:
 Fear: the life force for extreme sports enthusiasts
Helsingin Sanomat
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