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Cartoon showing the neurons in the brain enjoying the frightening movie the person is watching.
Why Do Some People Enjoy Horror Movies?
The enjoyment of a good scare may have more to do with relief than terror.
Why Do Some People Enjoy Horror Movies?
Why Do Some People Enjoy Horror Movies?

The enjoyment of a good scare may have more to do with relief than terror.

The enjoyment of a good scare may have more to do with relief than terror.

fear

A blue microscopy image of mouse brain cells, with dorsal raphe neurons shown in red.
A Novel Panic Pathway in the Brain
Hannah Thomasy, PhD | May 10, 2024 | 5 min read
A neural pathway driving panic-like behaviors in mice points to new therapeutic targets.
White mouse at the edge of a desk
The Heart Can Directly Influence Our Emotions
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Mar 1, 2023 | 4 min read
Researchers find that an increased heart rate can induce anxiety in mice, given the right context.
Photo of Steve Ramirez
Steve Ramirez Reshapes Memories in the Brains of Mice
Dan Robitzski | Nov 1, 2022 | 3 min read
The Boston University neuroscientist wants to take the edge off traumatic memories by manipulating how they’re processed in the brain.
The balance of mind and body on a seesaw
Psychological Stress Distracts the Immune System from Fighting Infections
Jennifer Zieba, PhD | Aug 8, 2022 | 3 min read
Acute stress makes immune cells migrate immediately to the bone marrow, which prepares the body for injury at the expense of increasing infectious disease susceptibility.
Photo of krill and plankton in the sea, macro detail
Fear Could Help Explain the Behavior of Animals in the Ocean
Catherine Offord | Jan 4, 2022 | 2 min read
Avoidance of predation is a driving force behind the daily movements of marine creatures across the food web, a study concludes.
A puma walking through the woods at night
Pandemic Lockdown Eases Mountain Lions’ Fear of Urban Areas
Jef Akst | Jul 2, 2021 | 4 min read
Six GPS-tracked wild cats wandered closer to Santa Cruz, California, and surrounding towns as human activity died down under shelter-in-place orders last March.
Screams Communicate Human Emotions
Phil Jaekl | Jul 1, 2021 | 5 min read
A group of self-styled screamologists are sifting through the noisiness of nonverbal human vocalizations and finding previously undemonstrated forms of communication.
neuroscience, mice, fear, pain, empathy, social transmission, emotion contagion, optogenetics, analgesia, Stanford University
Mice Share Each Other’s Pain and Fear
Amanda Heidt | Jan 14, 2021 | 5 min read
The animals adopt the emotional state of their cagemates, and the parts of the brain engaged during the process are different for pain and fear, according to a new study.
Book Excerpt from The Nature of Fear
Daniel T. Blumstein | Oct 21, 2020 | 4 min read
In the book’s prologue, author Daniel T. Blumstein explains his introduction to the study of fear.
The Sound and the Fear
The Scientist | Oct 1, 2020 | 1 min read
See University of California, Los Angeles, animal behavior researcher Dan Blumstein explain common characteristics of vocalizations that express fearful emotions.
Wielding Fear
Bob Grant | Oct 1, 2020 | 3 min read
The primordial emotion is apt to run amok. But harnessing it can lead to responsible behavior and sound thinking.
Contributors
Amanda Heidt | Oct 1, 2020 | 4 min read
Meet some of the people featured in the October 2020 issue of The Scientist.
Opinion: What Animals Can Teach Us About Fear
Daniel T. Blumstein | Oct 1, 2020 | 3 min read
Fear binds us to our human and nonhuman ancestors. Understanding the emotion can help us grapple with challenges we face today.
fear, anxiety, fMRI, study, neural circuits, brain study, neuroscience, amygdala, BNST
Brain Circuitry for Fear and Anxiety Is the Same on fMRI
Amanda Heidt | Sep 21, 2020 | 5 min read
A study in people fails to detect differences in the brain’s response to fear or anxiety, long thought to be controlled by different neural circuits.
Study Probes Brain Activity in Survivors of Paris Terror Attacks
Jef Akst | May 1, 2020 | 5 min read
Those who had developed PTSD appear to be less able to suppress unwanted memories—traumatic or not—suggesting a role for the general ability to control memory recall in the disorder.
How Manipulating Rodent Memories Can Elucidate Neurological Function
Amber Dance | May 1, 2020 | 10+ min read
Strategies to make lab animals forget, remember, or experience false recollections probe how memory works, and may inspire treatments for neurological diseases.
How Mice Forget to Be Afraid
Kerry Grens | May 1, 2020 | 2 min read
The animals develop a new memory that overrides the fearful one by inhibiting the cells that encode the original memory.
Infographic: Messing with a Mouse’s Memory
Amber Dance | May 1, 2020 | 3 min read
Researchers have developed ways to manipulate neurons involved in a particular memory to make mice recall an experience or to remember something that never happened.
Book Excerpt from Pleased to Meet Me
Bill Sullivan | Sep 1, 2019 | 5 min read
In Chapter 6, author Bill Sullivan explains how irrational fears can be passed down through transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.
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