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threat

·April 22, 2025·4 min read

Temporary Anxiety Impairs Threat Recognition and Learning

A brief episode of anxiety can significantly impair a person’s ability to distinguish between safe and dangerous environments, according to new research using a virtual reality flower-picking game. Participants who developed clear spatial memory of which areas contained “stinging bees” (simulated by mild shocks) exhibited lower anxiety, while those who couldn’t differentiate the zones maintained high anxiety—even in safe spaces.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 16, 2023·6 min read

Brain Pathway for Rapid Threat Response Found

A new study identifies a brain pathway responsible for rapid-threat detection, inspired by the "boiling frog" metaphor. Fruit flies were used as a model to understand how animals respond to rapid environmental changes.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 11, 2019·5 min read

Brain Cells that Modulate Behavioral Response to Threats Identified

Researchers implicate neurons within the dorsolateral septum in the regulation of fearful behaviors in mice.

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·January 11, 2019·5 min read

Sleeping Though a Fire Alarm: Benzodiazepines Prevent Ability to Wake in Response to Threat

Researchers report popular benzodiazepine sleep medications, such as Ambien and Halcion, caused test subjects to sleep through fire alarm drills. However, a newly developed class of sleeping medications perverse the ability to wake in response to threat.

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·December 7, 2018·4 min read

Being Yelled At: Our Brain on Alert in a Flash

Researchers report our brain is on high alert while listening to voices, finding we respond much faster to vocal aggression than normal or happy voices. The reason, researchers say, could be that our attention is more focused on threatening voices to help us recognize the location of a potential threat.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 11, 2018·5 min read

How Do We Make Snap Decisions?

Researchers look at what happens in the brain when we make snap decisions under stress.

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·March 6, 2018·5 min read

Brain Has Separate ‘Fear Circuits’ for Dealing with Immediate and Distant Threats

According to a new PNAS study, two areas of the brain are responsible for fear processing.

Image shows a brain with the amygdala highlighed.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 11, 2017·3 min read

Childhood Maltreatment May Change Brain’s Response to Threat

Researchers report people who experienced emotional abuse and neglect as children exhibited increased amygdala activity in anticipation of a mild electrical shock. The findings suggest early life stress could have an impact on the perception of distant threat.