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Bill Briggs writes:What’s scarier than bats in the belfry?
Easy: tarantulas in an MRI tube.
To observe the brain’s panic-response network in full freak, British researchers asked 20 volunteers to lie inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. One by one, the scientists then had each person view a screen that showed a tarantula crawling closer ... and ... closer to the subject’s feet.
As the spider advanced, MRI scans allowed researchers to see flashes of activity switch from the volunteer’s prefrontal cortex – a region associated with anxiety – to a spot in the midbrain known to involve intense fear. But the neural terror waned when the tarantula retreated, “regardless of the spider’s absolute proximity,” wrote the study’s authors. In other words, as long as the spider was moving away, no matter how close it still was, the volunteers relaxed.
Titled “Neural Activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula,” the study was published today by the National Academy of Sciences. They could simply have dubbed their paper: “Watching the Willies.” What the researchers glimpsed, they say, was the brain’s danger-tracking system at work.
Before you brand the scientists as sadists, you should know two things.
First: the findings may make it easier to diagnose and treat patients who suffer from clinical phobias, said Dr. Dean Mobbs, one of the authors.
“We first show that multiple (brain) systems are involved in fear and that a goal of future research should be to try and understand which parts of the system break down,” said Mobbs, who works at the MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge Medical School. “If we can understand this, then we can better engage people with phobias and other types of fear. To cure we must first understand.”
Second: the volunteers were actually watching pre-recorded images of the spiders walking to and fro. The MRI tubes never contained real critters.
But why tarantulas? Why not rats or bats or scorpions?
“The UK has one of the highest amounts of spider phobics in the world. This is despite the fact that we have no deadly spiders in the UK,” Mobbs said.
He then admitted: “I mainly used spiders because I have a slight fear of them.”
What scares you the most? Tell us about it in the comments.
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Leave a Comment:
Venipuncture scares me the most. While most health care pros poo poo such a phobia, they fail to realize it is potentially lethal, pushes them into erroneous diagnosis and also keeps many people from ever seeing a doctor...which of course means many conditions are missed until too late.
A majority of doctors are among the most arrogant people on earth...being so arrogant, they will not get it even when it is blatantly pointed out to them!
I am terrified of spiders and I actually experienced the phenomenon mentioned in this article about the test subjects relaxing when the spider retreated away from them.
About a week ago I stepped out my front door and turned around to see a moderately large spider on the front steps I had just walked down (I had realized I needed to go back inside for something). Normally, I cannot kill any but very small spiders myself because that requires me to get close to them. But shortly after I spotted the spider inching towards me, it started to crawl in the other direction. At that point I was able to not only approach the spider, but stomp on it so I could get back in the house. They still scare the daylights out of me but I can vouch for the fact that when they are not facing you in a threatening stance, they are slightly less scary...
Oh and there's no amount of money that would have gotten me to volunteer for this study, I had to cover up the photo of the tarantula just to read this article!
This is so very funny, I am Ok with Tarantulas but spiders I can not look at in a magazine so I totally understand.
Nice, the spider was minding its own business outside and you killed it. Whoo you go girl. >.<
They are gorgeous, fascinating creatures and I cannot for the life of me understand why people would be afraid of them, especially since we are a thousand times larger and most spiders cannot hurt us. Let me guess, you also are afraid of mice and snakes?
They are scary, no doubt about it. And they are creepy too. I would not have volunteered for the study- I shudder thinking about it. Being in a MRI is hard enough- nope, I can not even finish the sentence..............
I wonder if the subjects had been informed of the addition of pictures? Were they waiting for something to happen thus increasing the fear response when they images appeared? Informed consent is needed for any type of procedure, what would make anyone get into a confined tube and willingly be frightened like that?
It may have given the researchers help in understanding, but what of the subjects? I was in one of those tubes and it was bad enough without adding the images, I would have climbed out of the MRI if I was also subjected to frightening pictures.
I'm a certifiable emetophobe (fear of vomiting)...and yet I volunteer in an emergency room. I'm hoping that exposure therapy eventually works. :/ As of right now, I still panic (albeit quietly) around nauseous people.
I wonder, though. How could they do this sort of MRI on people with my phobia? Show us videos of people vomiting near or on the camera? *shudders*
I also have this fear. It's horrible! I'm pretty sure exposure therapy works fairly well (I used to be afraid of animals vomiting as well but after taking care of my dogs that fear has subsided) but I'm also on medication for it so it could be a mixture of "cures."
I still wouldn't want to put myself through exposure therapy though! Kudos to you for being able to handle it! (I hate hospitals for that reason only haha)
I just have to comment of this spider topic. Believe it not, no matter where I'm at, if there's a spider nearby,I can detect it. I sometimes think I'm the one with all the eyes and not the spider. Have to admit.I am amazed at how I can spot them.They don't stand a chance with me around. Here's a little tip to get a hanging spider to drop to the floor. Put your hand above it and just wiggle your fingers and the spider drop quickly.
I wake up screaming for my husband to help at least twice a month because I have such realistic dreams about giant spiders crawling quickly toward me. My husband has to convince me for a couple of minutes that it is not really there.
Large spiders are a phobia for me, but as long as I could stomp on them or crush them with something, I'm okay. No way would I get in some tightly enclosed space like an MRI with them. Large, evil looking bugs or crustaceans don't do a whole lot for me, either, and I have a slight fear of (falling from) heights, which is strange, considering I've jumped from perfectly good airplanes.
For me it's maggots....when i see them i freak out...they just bring a feeling over me like i wanna be sick and my body feels weak and my knees wanna cave in .... i start crying and cant breath....needless to say im glad we dont see maggots everyday and i would probably die if someone put some on me
Its sharks for me. I watched Jaws when I was way to young and it scarred me for life. I won't go in to a hotub alone at night since I can't see beneath the bubbles. I know in my head that its crazy but I still won't do it until someone else is in there with me.
You do realize maggots cannot hurt you? They make great chicken treats too. Sometimes I grow them just to feed to the birds.