"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","http://cogprints.org/5035/","Bracha, Dr. Stefan and Bracha, Adam S. and Williams, Dr. Andrew E. and Ralston, Tyler C. and Matsukawa, Jennifer M.","UNSPECIFIED"," Bracha, Dr. Stefan and Bracha, Adam S. and Williams, Dr. Andrew E. and Ralston, Tyler C. and Matsukawa, Jennifer M. (2005) The human fear-circuitry and fear-induced fainting in healthy individuals The paleolithic-threat hypothesis. [Journal (Paginated)] ","","2005"