http://cogprints.org/5035/
The human fear-circuitry and fear-induced
fainting in healthy individuals
The paleolithic-threat hypothesis
The Paleolithic-Threat
hypothesis reviewed here posits
that habitual efferent fainting can
be traced back to fear-induced
allelic polymorphisms that were
selected into some genomes of
anatomically, mitochondrially, and
neurally modern humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) in the Mid-Paleolithic because of the survival
advantage they conferred during
periods of inescapable threat. We
posit that during Mid-Paleolithic
warfare an encounter with “a
stranger holding a sharp object”
was consistently associated with
threat to life. A heritable hard-
wired or firm-wired (prepotentiated) predisposition to abruptly
increase vagal tone and collapse
flaccidly rather than freeze or
attempt to flee or fight in response
to an approaching sharp object, a
minor injury, or the sight of blood,
polymorphism for the hemodynamically “paradoxical” flaccid-
immobility in response to these
stimuli may have increased some
non-combatants’ chances of survival. This is consistent with the
unusual age and sex pattern of
fear-induced fainting. The Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis also predicts a link to various hypo-androgenic states (e.g. low dehydroxyepiandrosterone-sulfate. We offer
five predictions testable via epidemiological, clinical, and ethological/primatological methods. The
Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis has
implications for research in the
aftermath of man-made disasters,
such as terrorism against civilians,
a traumatic event in which this
hypothesis predicts epidemics of
fear-induced fainting
Bracha, Dr. Stefan
Bracha, Adam S.
Williams, Dr. Andrew E.
Ralston, Tyler C.
Matsukawa, Jennifer M.
Evolution
Psychophysiology
Stefan
Bracha
Adam S.
Bracha
Andrew E.
Williams
Tyler C.
Ralston
Jennifer M.
Matsukawa