環(huán)球英語 — 729：Fear

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Robin Basselin

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And I’m Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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What makes you afraid? Do you fear the dark? Or do you fear being in small places? These are common fears. However, people have many different fears.

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And fear is a difficult emotion. Fear can control a person’s life. However, there are also many ways that people can control their fear. Today’s Spotlight is about dealing with fear.

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What happens to our bodies when we are afraid? To help answer that question, let us imagine a woman named Mary.

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Mary is afraid of riding in cars. She is afraid because she was once involved in a bad car accident. When Mary gets into a car, she begins to sweat. Her skin becomes wet and she feels hot. Her heart begins to beat quickly. Her whole body feels tense.

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This physical reaction to fear is called the “fight or flight” response. When you are afraid, your body prepares itself in one of two ways. Either it prepares to fight what is making you afraid. Or it prepares for flight - to run away from what is making you afraid.

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Many things are happening in the brain during this “fight or flight” response. Scientists think that fear is processed through a place in our brain called the amygdala. The amygdala decides whether a situation is safe or unsafe.

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In Mary’s case, her amygdala decides that riding in a car is unsafe. It then releases a chemical called cortisol into Mary’s body. This chemical brings Mary’s “fight or flight” response. It causes Mary’s sweating, increased heart rate and tense body.

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Often, fears are strongly linked to memory. We remember a bad experience and become afraid. In this way, we have learned to be afraid.

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One scientific study tested this process and a possible way negative memories can be removed. In the study, scientists taught small animals, called mice, to be afraid of a particular place. When the mice entered the particular area, the scientists gave the mice an electric shock. This even produced a negative memory for the mice. They became afraid of the area where the shock happened.

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Once the mice were afraid, the scientists began their research. The scientists began giving the mice a chemical called CamKII. This chemical removed the mice’s memory of the negative experience. The mice’s fear of the area where they received the shock was completely gone.

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Scientists hope that one day they will be able to use the chemical with people. It may help people who have had a difficult experience that now makes them afraid. It could be used with soldiers who have negative memories of war or with victims of violence.

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But many people are concerned about completely removing negative memories which cause fear. One reason for their concern is the issue of truth. If a person forgets about a difficult experience, they may come to believe something which is untrue instead. For example, if a victim of violence forgets about her experience, she may come to believe the person who attacked her is safe.

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After a community has a terrible experience, they often promise they will not forget what happened. Their promise is to remember and learn from the difficulty. They promise to learn and become better people. If we remove people’s memories about terrible events, we may also remove their chance to learn from the experience.

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People are also concerned that forgetting difficult events would make forgiveness impossible. A part of forgiveness is choosing to defeat the negative memories we have about someone hurting us. If we do not remember a negative event, can we truly forgive the other person involved?

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Daniela Schiller is a scientist that studies fear. She is also concerned about completely removing memories. So, instead of removing fearful memories, Schiller studied ways to change a person’s emotional reaction to a fearful memory. Her study about fear used people. The scientists taught people to be afraid of a yellow square. Whenever the person saw the yellow square, they received an electric shock - just like the mice in the other study.

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After the scientists taught the people to be afraid, the scientists sent them home. Then, the next day, the same people came back to the testing location. Now the scientists worked to help the people unlearn their fear. They called this process “extinction training”.

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The “extinction training” began with scientists showing each person the yellow square again. This made the person remember the negative experience and they were fearful. However, this time, they were not given a shock. The scientists repeated this process many times, without shocking the people.

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This “extinction training” changed the emotions connected to the negative memory. The study showed that by experiencing a different emotion with a negative memory, we can stop being afraid of a situation.

Let us think back to Mary. To help Mary stop being afraid of riding in a car, scientists might try two things.

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The scientists who worked on the first study in today’s program might try to remove Mary’s memory about the car accident with medication. After using the medication, she would no longer be able to remember what happened. Therefore, she would no longer be afraid of riding in cars.

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The scientists who worked on the second study might help Mary replace the fear she feels when she gets into a car. They would have her remember the car accident. This would cause her again to feel fear. Then, they would have her take several good trips in a car. These safe experiences would replace Mary’s fearful memory of cars. She would still remember the car accident. But, she would not feel the same fear that she used to.

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Fear is a very powerful emotion. A lot of fear can make it difficult to live a normal life. But there is much we can learn from the experiences which cause fear. Defeating a difficult experience can make a person stronger than they were before the experience. A community can listen to those like soldiers or victims of violence who struggle with fear. By hearing about their negative experiences and their fear, the community may become more careful about going to war. They may become more careful to protect one another from violence.