Playing with snakes: A look at threat sensitivity and the fearless.

For most of us, the very sight of a snake would be enough to send us running but for some people touching them is as causal as petting a dog. In Time's article titled, How to Terrify the Fearless, neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz talks about Urbach-Withe disease, a genetic condition that renders those that it affects with what appears to be fearlessness. One patient diagnosed with the condition was not bothered by threatening animals like tarantulas and snakes. Her fearlessness even prevented her from being mugged once since her attacked was taken aback when she didn't respond to the fact that he had a knife to her throat. One speculation as to why this occurs is because the disease progressively destroys the amygdala which is considered the control center for most emotions including fear. In order to better understand this disease, researchers decided to look at things that would illicit fear in individuals with this disease. Researchers had participants of their study inhale carbon dioxide, the gas we would normally exhale. This created a feeling of suffocation that was terrifying for the individuals. This was for the most part the first time they had ever felt fear. This is interesting because it suggests that the amygdala is not solely responsible for fear. Instead it is primarily responsible for responding to potential threats from the outside world.

A different study, published by Dr. Stweart Shankman looked at exactly that, how threat sensitivity is involved in Panic Disorder. In his study, Dr. Shankman was interested in whether heightened sensitivity to threat was a possible mechanism of dysfunction in Panic Disorder. He tested this by having individuals with panic disorder partake in the NPU threat task. This task is divided into three portions, one in which the participants know they are safe from receiving a shock, one in which they are told they could possibly receive a shock when the image appears on the screen, and one in which they are told they could receive a shock at any time. The idea behind this was to determine whether predictable or unpredictable threats caused a heightened sensitivity to threat. The results determined that heightened sensitivity to both predictable and unpredictable threats were characteristics of individuals with Panic Disorder. The previous study supports this study in that those individuals responded to the predictable threat of carbon dioxide inhalation with panic.

References

1. Shankman, S. A., Nelson, B. D., Sarapas, C., Robison-Andrew, E. J., Campbell, M. L., Altman, S. E., Gorka, S. M. (2013). A psychophysiological investigation of threat and reward sensitivity in individuals with panic disorder and/or major depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(2), 322-338.

2. Szalavitz, M. (2013, February 11). How to Terrify the Fearless | TIME.com. Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/11/how-to-terrify-the-fearless/

3. Charlie the Snake Charmer. Digital image. Izismile.com. N.p., 8 Sept. 2012. Web <http://img.izismile.com/img/img5/20120907/640/australian_toddler_is_a_real_snake_charmer_640_06.jpg>.