Latest Fear Stories

In a close-up headshot, Serena Williams’ eyes are pressed tensely closed; her mouth is wide open, teeth bared. Her face looks enraged. Now zoom out: The tennis star is on the court, racket in hand, fist clenched in victory. She’s not angry. She’s ecstatic, having just beaten her sister Venus at the 2008 U.S. Open. “Humans are exquisitely sensitive to context, and that can very dramatically shape what is seen in a face,” says psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern...

Rice sociologist explores how neighborhood poverty influences maternal fear of children's outdoor play Neighborhood poverty is likely to make a mother more fearful about letting her children play outdoors, according to a new study by sociologists at Rice University and Stanford University. "It's no secret that children play outdoors less now than in recent decades, and research shows maternal fear as one reason why," said Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Rice assistant professor of sociology. She...

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) found in a new study that an area of your brain is hard-wired to respond to animals, whether they are cute and fluffy or ugly and threatening. No matter what your response is to animals, it could be thanks to that specific area of the brain that is hard-wired to rapidly detect other creatures. Working with researchers from UCLA, Caltech researchers report that neurons throughout the amygdala -- a center in the brain known...

Some people feel compelled to pet every furry animal they see on the street, while others jump at the mere sight of a shark or snake on the television screen. No matter what your response is to animals, it may be thanks to a specific part of your brain that is hardwired to rapidly detect creatures of the nonhuman kind. In fact, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and UCLA report that neurons throughout the amygdala—a center in the brain known for processing...

NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- For adults, September 11, 2001 was a terrifying day full of unknowns and horrifying images. But, how do those who were young children feel about that day? First, almost three-quarters of today's teens (72%) remember finding out about the events of September 11th on the day it happened. The events of that day, as well as the resulting aftermath, have changed the way they see the world compared to teens before 9/11, particularly regarding their trust...

Differences could cause cross-cultural misunderstandings, study finds Facial expressions have been called the "universal language of emotion," but people from different cultures perceive happy, sad or angry facial expressions in unique ways, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "By conducting this study, we hoped to show that people from different cultures think about facial expressions in different ways," said lead researcher Rachael E. Jack,...

When a male rat senses the presence of a fetching female rat, a certain region of his brain lights up with neural activity, in anticipation of romance. Now Stanford University researchers have discovered that in male rats infected with the parasite Toxoplasma, the same region responds just as strongly to the odor of cat urine. Is it time to dim the lights and cue the Rachmaninoff for some cross-species canoodling? "Well, we see activity in the pathway that normally controls how male...

A press release from PLoS ONENew research shows how a brain parasite can manipulate rodent fear responses for the parasite's own benefit. The study, authored by Patrick House and Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and released this week in PloS One, addressed how the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii makes infected rodents more likely to spend time near cat odors. The study finds Toxoplasma-infected male rats have altered activation in brain regions involved in fear and...

PTSD impairs ability to recognize emotions from facial expressionsFacial expressions convey strong cues for someone's emotional state and the ability to interpret these cues is crucial in social interaction. This ability is known to be compromised in many psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as social anxiety or Korsakoff's syndrome. New research has now revealed evidence that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also characterized by changes in the way the brain processes...

Biologists and psychologists know that light affects mood, but a new University of Virginia study indicates that light may also play a role in modulating fear and anxiety.Psychologist Brian Wiltgen and biologists Ignacio Provencio and Daniel Warthen of U.Va.'s College of Arts & Sciences worked together to combine studies of fear with research on how light affects physiology and behavior.Using mice as models, they learned that intense light enhances fear or anxiety in mice, which are...