In order to study how fear is manifested in the brain, researchers created a Pac-Man-like videogame that shocks the player if he or she gets caught by a digital predator. The scientists from University College London’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging used fMRI to scan the players’ brains and see which part lit up during gameplay. From a Wellcome Trust press release about the study, published in the journal Science:
When the artificial predator was in the distance, the researchers observed activity in lower parts of the prefrontal cortex just behind the eyebrows. Activity in this area – known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex – increases during anxiety and helps control strategies on how to respond to the threat.
However, as the predator moved closer, the brain activity shifted to a region of the brain responsible for more primitive behaviour, namely the periaqueductal grey. The periaqueductal grey is associated with quick-response survival mechanisms, which include fight, flight and freezing. This region is also associated with the body’s natural pain killer, opioid analgesia, preparing the body to react to pain.
“(An animal’s) most efficient survival strategy will depend on the level of threat we perceive,” (says researcher Dean Mobbs. “This makes sense as sometimes being merely wary of a threat is enough, but at other times we need to react quickly. The closer a threat gets, the more impulsive your response will be – in effect, the less free will you will have.”
Link to press release, Link to Science abstract