“If fear is quickly replaced by relief, as happens when you get scared but you immediately understand that it’s a joke, a storm is brewing in the brain beneficial chemistry. A rain of messengers of good mood, which transform the thrill into a smile” neuroscientists explain it Antonio Uccelli and Matteo Pardini, of the University of Genoa which, in view of the Halloween nighthave analyzed the mechanisms underlying the fascination of horror.
“The signs of fear – explains Dr. Uccelli, scientific director of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa – arise from the amygdala, an almond-shaped nucleus located deep in the brain, which modulates the response to fear and functions as an ’emotion control unit’ ”. In a potentially dangerous activating situation, therefore, in our body it triggers the fight or flight response: adrenaline rises, alertness and reactivity to external stimuli increase, heartbeat and breathing frequency accelerate, more blood reaches the muscles and blood sugar rises, infusing energy to the body as it prepares for action.
“Although we understand some aspects of neural networks of fear and how they coordinate behavior, there are still many unknowns,” notes Dr. Pardini, associate professor of Neuroscience at San Martino and at the University of Genoaexpert in cognitive science – When we are exposed to sensory stimuli or a potentially threatening environment, two pathways are activated in the brain. The first is fast: the information is transferred to the sensory thalamus and then to the amygdala, enabling immediate action to threatening stimuli. The second way is a slower and more indirect route: information is sent from the thalamus to the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, associated with consciousness, to reasoning and memory. This helps analyze the threat and allows us to determine if we are in real danger“.
“We don’t know exactly where the sensation of fear occurs in the brain – continues Uccelli – but it is likely that it comes from the coordinated activation of a network involving multiple brain regions. If the threat is considered real, other areas of the brain will be activated to initiate a coordinated response to the possible danger; the memory of the danger will be transferred and stored in memory through the activity of the hippocampus, so that we are able to remember and identify the threat at the next encounter.”
Instead “in recreational forms of fear, from horror films to children’s stories – describes the specialist – there’s a sweet spot where the context isn’t too terrifying, but not too tame either. At that point, a wave of fear followed quickly by a wave of relief causes the release of feel-good transmitters in the brain – endorphins and dopamine – and which trigger a rush of euphoria”.
“However – Prof. Uccelli warns – it is important to keep in mind that each of us has our own boundary line beyond which harmless fear can trigger distress. What may be a thrill to one person can be downright terrifying to another. So on Halloween it’s okay to be daring but in quantities tailored to each”. For someone, therefore, better trick than treat.
Instead “in recreational forms of fear, from horror films to children’s stories – describes the specialist – there’s a sweet spot where the context isn’t too terrifying, but not too tame either. At that point, a wave of fear followed quickly by a wave of relief causes the release of feel-good transmitters in the brain – endorphins and dopamine – and which trigger a rush of euphoria”.
“However – Prof. Uccelli warns – it is important to keep in mind that each of us has our own boundary line beyond which harmless fear can trigger distress. What may be a thrill to one person can be downright terrifying to another. So on Halloween it’s okay to be daring but in quantities tailored to each”. For someone, therefore, better trick than treat.
