New Research Suggests Fear Of Heights, Spiders, And Public Speaking All Activate Different Areas Of The Brain, So Treatments Can’t Be Considered One Size Fits All

Syda Productions
Syda Productions - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual people

Everyone has at least one fear that makes their stomach do somersaults. Some common worst fears include spiders, heights, and public speaking.

For a long time, it was assumed that the responses to these three fears occurred within the brain in a similar manner.

“There’s this story that we’ve had in the literature that the brain regions that predict fear are things like the amygdala, or the orbital frontal cortex area, or the brainstem,” said Ajay Satpute, an associate professor of psychology from Northeastern University.

“Those are thought to be part of a so-called ‘fear circuit’ that’s been a very dominant model in neuroscience for decades.”

In a new study, Satpute and colleagues conducted research that challenged the long-held belief. The researchers used MRI scans to observe brain activity when the three scenarios of the fear of heights, fear of spiders, and fear of “social threats” were faced.

Social threats included stuff like public speaking and confrontations with the police. They discovered that the neural response to each scenario did not follow one pattern. Instead, different areas of the brain were activated.

The research team wanted to acquire more knowledge about how fear works in the brain because AI and machine learning are increasingly being used in neuroscience to develop models that can predict emotions based on brain activity.

They asked 21 participants to complete surveys about things that scared them. Then, the team monitored their brain activity in an MRI while the participants watched videos from the first-person point of view.

The videos depicted frightening scenarios, such as giving a public speech, being approached by a large, hairy spider, and looking down a steep ledge on a hike.

Syda Productions – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people

After watching each video, the participants rated their levels of fear, valance (how pleasant or unpleasant an experience is), and arousal on a questionnaire.

The study showed that fear responses occurred in more brain regions than expected. However, not all brain regions responded to all three scenarios.

“The amygdala, for instance, seemed to carry information that predicted fear during the heights context, but not some of the other contexts,” said Satpute.

“We’re not seeing these so-called ‘classic threat areas’ involved in being predictive of fear across situations.”

The findings support the idea that not all fear is the same. In the future, Satpute hopes to use a larger sample size of participants to see if demographic factors like age and gender contribute to fear responses.

The results could be instrumental in how fear and anxiety-related disorders are treated, affecting not only behavioral-based therapies but drug-based ones as well.

“Drug-based therapies that target a particular circuit do work, but only for about fiftyish percent of people,” said Satpute.

“It’s not really clear why. Our research offers at least some explanation—the brain regions that are going to matter for any emotional experience are going to vary by the person and situation. If you focus only on what’s common, you ignore so much.”

The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

Emily  Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a ... More about Emily Chan

More About: