Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: As we navigate the world around us, sometimes we are faced with danger. Our brains help keep us safe from harm, but we do not fully understand how they do this. How do our brains decide to make us freeze in place when we hear bees buzzing, so that they ignore us and buzz on by? And when those bees are angry, how do our brains decide that running away is a better option than freezing? Answers to these questions will help us understand how our brains make decisions when we are afraid, and will also allow us to determine what may be going wrong in the brains of people who have too much fear—like people with anxiety. Our research shows that an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex contains teams of brain cells that help us to freeze or to run away, depending on how much danger we are in.
Source: Frontiers for Young Minds
Author: Lindsay R. Halladay
Institution: Santa Clara University
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2943938110