"A lot of our fears and anxieties are learned through communication." According to this article, the things that we hear may affect us as much as the things that we have actually experienced. In other words, when it comes to our brain, we may react in the same way when someone tells us there is a threat as we do when we have actually experienced this threat. To me, this is vaguely similar to classical conditioning in that we may react to a conditioned stimulus (being told there is a threat) even when the unconditioned stimulus (an actual threat) is not present. There have been many studies on this particular subject and the purpose of these studies is to help people coping with afflictions such as panic disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorder by helping them manage imaginary fears.
             A New York University neuroscientist named Elizabeth A. Phelps has conducted tests on the different ways the brain responds to fear. She has recently published a study in which subjects were shown a random sequence of blue and yellow squares and told that they might receive an electric shock when a blue square was shown. Magnetic resonance imaging of the amygdala (a section of the brain that processes stimulus in to fear) along with electrodes hooked up to subject's fingers, revealed that when the subjects were told about the impending threat the amygdala responded to this threat as if it were real.
             People have argued over whether fear was truly an involuntary reaction, or whether it is purely psychological, or "all in your mind." I think this article points out an important aspect of this argument, that communication and prior knowledge of certain events can lead to fear rather than one's actual experience. For instance, if I were to move into a new neighborhood and someone tells me that the little old lady down the street eats little kids (lets p
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