23.03.2011Fear in the brain: Effects of stress hormones and sex

Dr. Christian Merz, Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Everybody is afraid of certain things in life; these can be spiders or tall height. Fear of specific objects or situations can be learned unconsciously, e.g. by the so-called classical conditioning that is known as the Pavlovian reflex. In extreme cases, such fear learning processes lead to mental illness that occurs differently often in men and women. For example, women suffer more often from anxiety disorders – but why? Psychologist Christian Merz explains in his lecture “Fear in the brain: influence of stress hormones and sex”, what the functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals on the relationship of fear, stress and gender.