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PHOBIA LIBRARY
Read up on fear, panic and phobia to get a general overview of phobias and trauma and fear management. Learn mindfulness based self care principles and exercises for managing phobias from my books on trauma and self care.
JUMP TO A CHAPTER
Fear | Function | Thought | Treatment | Coping
For Help See: Fear in the Brain | Fear Dictionary
Fear | Function | Thought | Treatment | Coping
For Help See: Fear in the Brain | Fear Dictionary
THE LIBRARY TOPIC HOME PAGES
Introduction to Trauma, Fear and Phobia
Part 1: Defining Fear and the Fear Response
Part 2: Emotional & Cognitive Functions of Fear
Part 3: Maladaptive Thought Processing
Part 4: Professional Therapy & Mindful Self Care
THE PHOBIA COLLECTION DOWNLOADS
Browse Collection of Phobias by Topic
Download Collection of Phobias
Download Dictionary of Fear and Phobia
Download Self Care Guides for Coping
Introduction to Trauma, Fear and Phobia
Part 1: Defining Fear and the Fear Response
Part 2: Emotional & Cognitive Functions of Fear
Part 3: Maladaptive Thought Processing
Part 4: Professional Therapy & Mindful Self Care
THE PHOBIA COLLECTION DOWNLOADS
Browse Collection of Phobias by Topic
Download Collection of Phobias
Download Dictionary of Fear and Phobia
Download Self Care Guides for Coping
PART TWO - FUNCTIONS
BRAIN FUNCTIONS OF FEAR
MEMORY & EMOTION
Articles defining the structure and characteristics of the emotional center (emotions, feelings, stressors, triggers) and the memory functions that affect fear, phobia, anxiety and panic
BRAIN FUNCTIONS DIRECTORY
Function of Memory
Download the Dictionary of the Mind and Brain for help on the terms in this section
See Also
Structural Functions of the Brain
Neuroplasticity (Rewiring Your Brain)
RELATED SELF CARE GUIDES BY KAIROS
View All Downloads
Phobia Home | Library Home | Topic Home
- Mind Your Memory and Processes of Fear
- Memory Effects on Other Functions
- Memory Types Serve Different Functions
- Role of Emotions & Emotional Responses
- Characteristics of the Emotion of Fear
- Feeling the Feelings
- Defining the Feelings of Fear
- Feelings You Can’t Define
Download the Dictionary of the Mind and Brain for help on the terms in this section
See Also
Structural Functions of the Brain
Neuroplasticity (Rewiring Your Brain)
RELATED SELF CARE GUIDES BY KAIROS
View All Downloads
- Uncovering the Traumatized Brain
- Riding the Crazy Train of Emotions
- Promoting Mindful Self Care
- Principles of Mindfulness for the Soul
- All Brain and Mind Glossaries
Phobia Home | Library Home | Topic Home
ALL CONTENT PROVIDED BY MY BOOKS ON MINDFUL SELF CARE FOR TRAUMA AND FEAR
Download for Free Here
Download for Free Here
MIND YOUR MEMORY
HOW MEMORY PROCESSES FEAR
Human memory involves the ability to both preserve and recover information we have learned or experienced. This is not a flawless process because we forget or misremember things and our brain distorts things and even creates false memories. Sometimes things are not properly encoded in memory in the first place. Memory problems can range from minor annoyances like forgetting your glasses to major diseases like dementia that affects the quality of life and our ability to function.
In order to form new memories information must be changed into a usable form. This occurs through what is called encoding. Once information has been successfully encoded it must be stored in our memory for later use. Much of our stored memory exists outside of our awareness in the subconscious except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.
Some memories are very brief, just seconds long, and allow us to take in sensory information about the world around us. Short-term memories are a bit longer and last about 20 to 30 seconds. These memories mostly consist of the information we are currently focusing on and thinking about. And some memories are capable of enduring much longer, last days, weeks, months, or decades. Most of these long-term memories exist outside of our immediate awareness, but we can trigger them into consciousness when they are needed.
To use the information that has been encoded it must be retrieved. There are many factors that can influence how memories are retrieved. For example the type of information being used and the retrieval cues that are present. Of course, this process is not always perfect. Have you ever felt like you had the answer to a question right at the tip of your tongue? This is an example of a retrieval problem known as lethologica.
MEMORY OF EMOTIONAL EVENTS
The most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events. They are recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events.
Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially in the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This control is linked to learning processes, as intrinsic attention is better focused on relevant information. Emotion facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. The effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always evident, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory retention. Neuroimaging findings have indicated that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe that leads to the amygdala modulating memory consolidation, The prefrontal cortex mediates memory encoding and formation. The hippocampus affects successful learning and long-term retention. This highlights a basic evolutionary approach to emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the functional roles in relation to emotional processing.
Pleasant emotions appear to fade more slowly from our memory than unpleasant emotions, but with fear, anxiety, depression, and unpleasant emotions tend to fade evenly. In older adults, who seem to regulate their emotions better than younger people, memory may encode less information that is negative.
With autobiographical processes, positive memories contained more sensorial and contextual details than neutral or negative memories (which didn't significantly differ from each other in this regard). This was true regardless of the individual's personal coping styles. Emotionally charged events are remembered better. Pleasant emotions are usually remembered better than unpleasant ones. Positive memories contain more contextual details (which in turn, helps memory). Strong emotion can impair memory for less emotional events and information experienced at the same time. It's the emotional arousal, not the importance of the information, that helps memory
The activity of emotionally enhanced memory storage can be linked to human evolution. Responsive behavior to environmental events would affect survival because it depended on behavioral patterns that were reinforced through life and death situations. Through evolution in this process of learning became embedded genetically in humans and in what is known as flight or fight instinct.
Artificially inducing this response through traumatic physical or emotional stimuli essentially creates the same physiological condition that heightens memory retention. The neuro-chemical activity affects encoding and recalling memory. However, emotion does not always enhance memory.
EFFECTS OF MEMORY ON FEAR
Scientists have recognized that memories form in stages. An emotional memory is unstableand that means nothing more than a pattern of electrical signals in the brain. A strong emotion like fear strengthens and reinforces these signals with proteins, stress hormones, and neurotransmitters.
Experiments have shown that the process of recalling a fearful memory reactivates it. This means it returns it to an unstable form. For it to continue, the memory must enter the process of reconsolidation. Exploratory studies suggest that if something disrupts this process, like a technique or learned behavior, even a previously consolidated memory may weaken or disappear.
Psychotherapy for anxiety attempts to reduce the emotional reaction to something that a person finds terrifying (such as spiders or heights). One of the most useful approaches is exposure therapy, a type of CBT that helps patients learn to respond differently to a fear stimulus or memory.
This process is called fear extinction and used to be known as an inhibition or "unlearning" of a fear response. But recent research suggests that fear extinction actually involves the formation of a new memory. If fear extinction involves creating a new "resilient response" memory, then strengthening a new memory helps it stay ahead of an older, fear-inducing one.
A different approach is to erase the fear-inducing elements of a memory or reduce its effects.. Neuroscientists call this impairing reconsolidation. Therapy must be timed so that it occurs during or shortly after a stored memory is recalled (before it becomes reconsolidated) which is a period of only a few hours.
Because stress hormones such as cortisol help to consolidate fear-inducing memories, researchers have most often tested beta blockers (which counter the effects of these hormones) as a possible means to interfere with the reconsolidation process.
BRAIN REGIONS AFFECTED
The brain region most strongly implicated in emotional memory is the amygdala. This is evident in the fear response.
The amygdala is critically involved in calculating the emotional significance of events and dealing with sensory experiences. It also appears to be responsible for the influence of emotion on perception - like alerting us to notice emotionally significant events even when we're not paying attention. The amygdala is keyed to negative experiences. Stress hormones, such as cortisol, interact with the amygdala. The other is that the amygdala can alter the activity of other brain regions. One of the ways in which it does this is by acting on consolidation processes (principally in the hippocampus).
The cerebellum, most strongly associated with motor coordination skills, may also be involved in remembering strong emotions, in particular, in the consolidation of long-term memories of fear. Parts of the prefrontal cortex also appear to be involved. One study found that a region of the prefrontal cortex was jointly influenced by a combination of mood state and cognitive task, but not by either one alone. Another study found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is more active when the participants were surprised by unexpected responses.
Research suggests that emotional stimuli move in parallel streams through the brain before being integrated in a specific part of the brain's prefrontal cortex (the anterior cingulate). This is why emotional stimuli are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with your concentration on a task such as driving. We now think that attention is not, as has been thought, a global process, but consists of at least three distinct processes, each located in different parts of the frontal lobes. These are a system that helps us maintain a general state of readiness to respond; a system that sets our threshold for responding to an external stimulus; and a system that helps us selectively attend to appropriate stimuli.
In order to form new memories information must be changed into a usable form. This occurs through what is called encoding. Once information has been successfully encoded it must be stored in our memory for later use. Much of our stored memory exists outside of our awareness in the subconscious except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.
Some memories are very brief, just seconds long, and allow us to take in sensory information about the world around us. Short-term memories are a bit longer and last about 20 to 30 seconds. These memories mostly consist of the information we are currently focusing on and thinking about. And some memories are capable of enduring much longer, last days, weeks, months, or decades. Most of these long-term memories exist outside of our immediate awareness, but we can trigger them into consciousness when they are needed.
To use the information that has been encoded it must be retrieved. There are many factors that can influence how memories are retrieved. For example the type of information being used and the retrieval cues that are present. Of course, this process is not always perfect. Have you ever felt like you had the answer to a question right at the tip of your tongue? This is an example of a retrieval problem known as lethologica.
MEMORY OF EMOTIONAL EVENTS
The most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events. They are recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events.
Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially in the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This control is linked to learning processes, as intrinsic attention is better focused on relevant information. Emotion facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. The effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always evident, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory retention. Neuroimaging findings have indicated that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe that leads to the amygdala modulating memory consolidation, The prefrontal cortex mediates memory encoding and formation. The hippocampus affects successful learning and long-term retention. This highlights a basic evolutionary approach to emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the functional roles in relation to emotional processing.
Pleasant emotions appear to fade more slowly from our memory than unpleasant emotions, but with fear, anxiety, depression, and unpleasant emotions tend to fade evenly. In older adults, who seem to regulate their emotions better than younger people, memory may encode less information that is negative.
With autobiographical processes, positive memories contained more sensorial and contextual details than neutral or negative memories (which didn't significantly differ from each other in this regard). This was true regardless of the individual's personal coping styles. Emotionally charged events are remembered better. Pleasant emotions are usually remembered better than unpleasant ones. Positive memories contain more contextual details (which in turn, helps memory). Strong emotion can impair memory for less emotional events and information experienced at the same time. It's the emotional arousal, not the importance of the information, that helps memory
The activity of emotionally enhanced memory storage can be linked to human evolution. Responsive behavior to environmental events would affect survival because it depended on behavioral patterns that were reinforced through life and death situations. Through evolution in this process of learning became embedded genetically in humans and in what is known as flight or fight instinct.
Artificially inducing this response through traumatic physical or emotional stimuli essentially creates the same physiological condition that heightens memory retention. The neuro-chemical activity affects encoding and recalling memory. However, emotion does not always enhance memory.
EFFECTS OF MEMORY ON FEAR
Scientists have recognized that memories form in stages. An emotional memory is unstableand that means nothing more than a pattern of electrical signals in the brain. A strong emotion like fear strengthens and reinforces these signals with proteins, stress hormones, and neurotransmitters.
Experiments have shown that the process of recalling a fearful memory reactivates it. This means it returns it to an unstable form. For it to continue, the memory must enter the process of reconsolidation. Exploratory studies suggest that if something disrupts this process, like a technique or learned behavior, even a previously consolidated memory may weaken or disappear.
Psychotherapy for anxiety attempts to reduce the emotional reaction to something that a person finds terrifying (such as spiders or heights). One of the most useful approaches is exposure therapy, a type of CBT that helps patients learn to respond differently to a fear stimulus or memory.
This process is called fear extinction and used to be known as an inhibition or "unlearning" of a fear response. But recent research suggests that fear extinction actually involves the formation of a new memory. If fear extinction involves creating a new "resilient response" memory, then strengthening a new memory helps it stay ahead of an older, fear-inducing one.
A different approach is to erase the fear-inducing elements of a memory or reduce its effects.. Neuroscientists call this impairing reconsolidation. Therapy must be timed so that it occurs during or shortly after a stored memory is recalled (before it becomes reconsolidated) which is a period of only a few hours.
Because stress hormones such as cortisol help to consolidate fear-inducing memories, researchers have most often tested beta blockers (which counter the effects of these hormones) as a possible means to interfere with the reconsolidation process.
BRAIN REGIONS AFFECTED
The brain region most strongly implicated in emotional memory is the amygdala. This is evident in the fear response.
The amygdala is critically involved in calculating the emotional significance of events and dealing with sensory experiences. It also appears to be responsible for the influence of emotion on perception - like alerting us to notice emotionally significant events even when we're not paying attention. The amygdala is keyed to negative experiences. Stress hormones, such as cortisol, interact with the amygdala. The other is that the amygdala can alter the activity of other brain regions. One of the ways in which it does this is by acting on consolidation processes (principally in the hippocampus).
The cerebellum, most strongly associated with motor coordination skills, may also be involved in remembering strong emotions, in particular, in the consolidation of long-term memories of fear. Parts of the prefrontal cortex also appear to be involved. One study found that a region of the prefrontal cortex was jointly influenced by a combination of mood state and cognitive task, but not by either one alone. Another study found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is more active when the participants were surprised by unexpected responses.
Research suggests that emotional stimuli move in parallel streams through the brain before being integrated in a specific part of the brain's prefrontal cortex (the anterior cingulate). This is why emotional stimuli are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with your concentration on a task such as driving. We now think that attention is not, as has been thought, a global process, but consists of at least three distinct processes, each located in different parts of the frontal lobes. These are a system that helps us maintain a general state of readiness to respond; a system that sets our threshold for responding to an external stimulus; and a system that helps us selectively attend to appropriate stimuli.
MORE ON BRAIN FUNCTIONS
This content is provided for informational purposes only. Author is not a medical professional. Talk to your doctor to determine what therapy is right for you.
Self care techniques are meant to supplement professional treatment not replace it.
DISCLAIMER OF THE LEARNING LIBRARY
Self care techniques are meant to supplement professional treatment not replace it.
DISCLAIMER OF THE LEARNING LIBRARY
BROWSE PHOBIA COLLECTION
Phobia collection is presented in eight themed parts
VIEW LIST INDEX or JUMP TO A PART
PART [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
PHOBIA COLLECTION BY TOPIC
common ~ abstract ~ ordinary ~ bizarre ~ catastrophic ~ psyche ~ icky - academic ~ knowledge ~ education ~ literary ~ art ~ music ~ religion ~ political ~ law ~ order military ~ war ~ discrimination ~ science ~ chemical ~ energy ~ time ~ numbers ~ technology ~ nature ~ environment ~ astronomy ~ weather ~ geography ~ people ~ family ~ community ~ anatomy ~ medical ~ disease ~ emotions ~ senses ~ sensations ~ movement ~ conditions~ love ~ relationships ~ sexuality ~ lifestyle ~ places ~ events ~ objects ~ clothing ~ tools ~ vehicles ~ home ~ cooking ~ food ~ entertainment ~ sports ~ recreation ~ toys ~ games ~ monsters ~ characters ~ spooky ~ nightmares ~ delusional ~ joke ~ fiction
DOWNLOAD PONDERING THE PHOBIA
Now Available for Download for Offline Reading
All the phobias in one download. Browse by both topic/subject and by alphabetized list
Download/Share: http://bit.ly/ponderingphobia
OTHER PHOBIA AND FEAR DOWNLOADS:
Dictionary of Trauma, Phobia and Fear
Self Care Guides for Fear & Phobias
common ~ abstract ~ ordinary ~ bizarre ~ catastrophic ~ psyche ~ icky - academic ~ knowledge ~ education ~ literary ~ art ~ music ~ religion ~ political ~ law ~ order military ~ war ~ discrimination ~ science ~ chemical ~ energy ~ time ~ numbers ~ technology ~ nature ~ environment ~ astronomy ~ weather ~ geography ~ people ~ family ~ community ~ anatomy ~ medical ~ disease ~ emotions ~ senses ~ sensations ~ movement ~ conditions~ love ~ relationships ~ sexuality ~ lifestyle ~ places ~ events ~ objects ~ clothing ~ tools ~ vehicles ~ home ~ cooking ~ food ~ entertainment ~ sports ~ recreation ~ toys ~ games ~ monsters ~ characters ~ spooky ~ nightmares ~ delusional ~ joke ~ fiction
DOWNLOAD PONDERING THE PHOBIA
Now Available for Download for Offline Reading
All the phobias in one download. Browse by both topic/subject and by alphabetized list
Download/Share: http://bit.ly/ponderingphobia
OTHER PHOBIA AND FEAR DOWNLOADS:
Dictionary of Trauma, Phobia and Fear
Self Care Guides for Fear & Phobias
Phobia articles provided by my self care series Healing the PTSD Mind and my series on mindfulness based self care Be Mindful Be Well. These self directed guides are written from a trauma perspective but the content applies to the symptoms of phobia like fear and panic. Learn and simple self care techniques with mindfulness.
BE MINDFUL. BE WELL. TRY MINDFULNESS.
DOWNLOAD SELF CARE GUIDES FOR FREE
Books copyright 2021 by By Kairos
BE MINDFUL. BE WELL. TRY MINDFULNESS.
DOWNLOAD SELF CARE GUIDES FOR FREE
Books copyright 2021 by By Kairos
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Words are also posted on twitter under the hashtags #beautifulwords and #wordoftheday and shared visually on pinterest bulletin boards
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Content by Kairos ~ @kairosoflife
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