Stress is a common part of modern life, and scientists are beginning to uncover the detrimental effects on the body caused by stress. Research on two key players in the stress response, the amygdala and cortisol, is revealing the crucial role...
A lack of the amino acid l-lysine may raise your level of anxiety, something regulated largely by the brain areas known as the amygdala. It’s too soon to tell, however, whether l-lysine supplementation has the potential to lower risk for...
Nutrition plays an important role in both physical and mental health. The metabolic process of digestion converts the food you eat into chemicals needed to fuel your body and brain. Eating a balanced diet helps you avoid health problems, and...
Hans Selye, a Canadian endocrinologist of Austro-Hungarian origin, was the first to apply the word "stress" to physical and emotional strain. Before that, "stress" was just an engineering term. Selye, who did the bulk of his research in the 1930s,...
Emotions, like fear and love, are carried out by the limbic system, which is located in the temporal lobe. While the limbic system is made up of multiple parts of the brain, the center of emotional processing is the amygdala, which receives input...
Many neuroscientists believe that hostility is related to fear and anxiety. It is a response to threatening stimuli. The parts of the brain involved in mediating hostile behavior in humans are within a circuit classically known as the limbic...
Memory is the brain's ability to convert a current experience into a code and store the information for later recall. As explained on the Brainwaves Center website, the brain will not commit sensory input to memory until it has been interpreted...
Hostility is a form of aggression. Aggression is categorized as predatory or affective; in the predatory form, aggression is used by predators to capture prey. In animals, affective aggression is marked by vocalization, hair standing on end and...
Smoking cigarettes is one of the hardest addictions to end, because many regions of the brain are wired for reinforcement of smoking. Nicotine, the main active component of cigarettes, acts on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain....
Fear is more than just an unpleasant emotion. It is a powerful stimulator that catalyzes a total physiological response in the body coordinated by a primitive part of your brain called the amygdala. Your ability to experience fear, along with...
People with panic disorder experience many symptoms, including shortness of breath, chest pain, and fear of losing control or dying. The Healthy Place says that panic disorder has several biological causes, but also states that environment and...
When brain cell communication goes awry, psychiatric conditions such as anxiety are a possible outcome. Certain nutrients obtained from food, such as taurine, serve to protect the brain from a disruption of healthy functioning. However, the advice...
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects 1 percent of the world's population, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A patient with schizophrenia cannot tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, and has issues...
Anxiety is the feeling of fear, nervousness or worry that you experience when anticipating something unpleasant. Thinking about an upcoming performance, misplacing something important or preparing for a confrontation are all situations that may...
Anxiety can range from an occasional mild feeling of emotional discomfort to daily occurrences of disabling emotions. The National Institute of Mental Health says that approximately 40 million Americans aged 18 or older have an anxiety disorder....
When a person suffers from an anxiety disorder, it can feel like his body is raging out of control. It makes sense, then, to consider the biological factors underlying anxiety. Biology alone does not explain why anxiety disorders occur. Anxiety...
The sudden and repeated intrusion of fearful and in the most severe cases, terrorizing feelings experienced by a person when presented with known or unknown stressors is the basis of panic disorder. Panic disorder is one class of anxiety disorder...
Anxiety is a physical and mental condition that is associated with low extra-cellular levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, increased fear professing in the amygdala, the brain's main fear processing center, and an increased...
Dopamine is made by the inner part of the adrenal gland, called the adrenal medulla, and is one of the hormones responsible for the "fight or flight" reaction to a stressful or dangerous situation. During times of stress and anxiety, dopamine is...
Serotonin is a mood-enhancing neurotransmitter that can help prevent depression and anxiety disorders. Doctors normally prescribe antidepressants as a way of raising the brain's levels of serotonin when the levels are too low. 5-HTP is an...
Trauma can occur in two ways that affect the brain: traumatic brain injury and traumatic stress. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) defines traumatic brain injury as an impact to the head, such as one caused by...
The limbic system represents the part of your brain devoted to the most basic survival structures that protect and regulate emotions and reactive states. Interconnecting pathways link the limbic system, located deep within your brain, to the...
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder, characterized by impulsive behavior, inattentiveness, lack of concentration and hyperactivity. Some ADHD patients are predominantly inattentive, some predominantly...
In the human brain, information must be stored in order for learning to take place. So, the areas of the brain that are most important to learning are those involved in memory. Other crucial areas include regions involved in processing information...
The limbic system comprises several cortical and subcortical brain areas that are interconnected. This system essentially controls emotions, and the autonomic and endocrine responses associated with emotions. The limbic system also mediates the...
Anxiety attacks, also called panic attacks, are abnormal reactions to stress or perceived danger. While most people experience anxiety as a normal reaction to stressful situations, those who suffer from an anxiety disorder experience extreme...
Claustrophobia is categorized as an anxiety disorder and specific phobia that typically begins in childhood. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that over 19 million adults have a form of a specific phobia, including claustrophobia....
Millions of Americans suffer from anxiety disorders each year, often in conjunction with other conditions such as alcohol abuse. The National Institute of Mental Health defines anxiety disorder as a state of uncertainty and fearfulness that...
The brain is the home of complex processes such as memory, language and attention. Neuroscientists have long believed that these higher-order functions are associated with distinct areas in the brain. But no single area in the brain is responsible...
