ANTH205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Adrenal Gland, Prefrontal Cortex, Agoraphobia
22 May 2018
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The Brain on Fear
Monsters in Our Lives: Fear and Anxieties
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Monsters
● Only partly metaphorical
● The this that e’e leared to ear
● There are still monsters -- only now they are not mythological figures
The biology of emotion
● The amygdala is the emotional driver of our brains
○ The amygdala & hypothalamus control our first response
○ visual/auditory/sensory stimulus that is recognized as
potentionally dangerous → neurons from eye/sensory organ
sends signal directly to the amygdala
○ The amygdala then stimulates the hypothalamus to produce corticotropin-releasing
hormone (CRH)
○ The release of CRH → triggers the pituitary gland’s
discharge of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) → then
stimulates the adrenal gland to secrete cortisol
○ Cortisol in the bloodstream → increase in glucose
production, providing the necessary……..
● Prefrontal cortex is a balancer -- what is the reasonable response?
● Culture gives us guidelines on how to control what we are afraid of
Programmed Terror Detector
● gut feelings
○ our amygdala screaming caution
○ As children, we take modest risks
■ Our parents let us
■ In this way, we learn the feelings of the warning signs
○ We also learn by observing others
■ That nasty fall that our brother or sister took showed us that jumping off the
piano is not a good idea
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
The thi(cid:511)(cid:480)s that (cid:923)e"(cid:922)e lear(cid:511)ed to (cid:479)ear. There are still monsters -- only now they are not mythological figures. The amygdala is the emotional driver of our brains. The amygdala & hypothalamus control our first response. Visual/auditory/sensory stimulus that is recognized as potentionally dangerous neurons from eye/sensory organ sends signal directly to the amygdala. The amygdala then stimulates the hypothalamus to produce corticotropin-releasing hormone (crh) The release of crh triggers the pituitary gland"s discharge of adrenocorticotropic hormone (acth) then stimulates the adrenal gland to secrete cortisol. Cortisol in the bloodstream increase in glucose production, providing the necessary Culture gives us guidelines on how to control what we are afraid of. In this way, we learn the feelings of the warning signs. That nasty fall that our brother or sister took showed us that jumping off the piano is not a good idea. We also learn as adults reinforced cultural experiences, accumulated by the overall population.
