The Neuroscience of Fear-Induced “Freeze” Responses

With the prevalence of anxiety in today’s society (as well as my own personal experience with it), I found myself drawn to the title of this article–as so many of us can relate to literally “freezing up” with anxiety. So let’s look at the neuroscience behind why this even happens in the first place.

Neuroscientists at the University of Bristol have unearthed fear mechanisms rooted in the cerebellum that could lead to new anti-anxiety medications and treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their findings showed that the cerebellum is part of the brain’s survivor network and that it regulates fear-memory processes. This raised the possibility that disruption of the cerebellum might be responsible for anxiety and other fear-based disorders. Thereby leading to a new target (the cerebellum) for future therapies.

The cerebellum itself coordinates everything from our motor movements with our bodies as well as our thoughts. In conjunction with this, the cerebellum, by extension, controls our fight-or flight response–as well as freezing. In an ideal situation (and brain), these responses would only be used in appropriate situations. But can become problematic when our brain perceives normal everyday activities as being a threat.

There is another key area of the brain that the cerebellum helps to modulate; this area is known as periaqueductal gray (PAG), which triggers automatic defensive behaviors such as freezing in place during times of perceived danger. It takes coordinated communication between the cerebellum and PAG to ensure that the freeze response does not linger any longer than necessary.

At any rate, the neuroscience behind this study shows that the cerebellum is part of the brain’s survival network fear-memory processes in multiple ways, again raising the possibility that dysfunctional interactions in the cerebellum (and survival network of the brain as a whole) may indeed be the cause of fear-related disorders.

My own personal take home from this research article is that I’m honestly not that surprised. I always figured there was most likely a specific area of the brain that could be at least mostly responsible for the freeze response.

Read the full article here.

And, as a question for you all: When you have had to deal with the freeze response in your lives, what ways have been most beneficial for you in regards to working through it?

#Fear #Anxiety #Neuroscience