Research
Fear actually makes it harder for your brain to tell if you are safe, which may help explain PTSD
Earth.com · By Eric Ralls ·
The Brief
- A new study reports that fear blurs the brain's ability to distinguish the place where a frightening event occurred from other places.
- A memory center deep in the brain is involved in storing the location-specific fear response, according to the Earth.com summary.
- The researchers suggest this may help explain PTSD, though the source text provided is only a partial excerpt.
Why it matters
The finding offers a possible mechanism linking fear-based memory and place to post-traumatic stress, which may inform future research on PTSD.
Who’s affected
- researchers studying fear, memory and PTSD
- clinicians interested in trauma-related mechanisms
After something frightening happens, the brain should be able to distinguish between the location where it actually occurred from every other place where it didn’t. However, a new study shows that fear tends to blur that line in the brain. A memory center deep in the brain stored…
Timeline
Earth.com reports on the new study
Earth.com
Fear actually makes it harder for your brain to tell if you are safe, which may help explain PTSD