Why is every death- accident- attack a Terror Attack- people gotta get ffn real.
So many threads begin with or are added to- could be a terror attack.
People should slow down and wait and get a life.
psychological thrill seeking from the relative safety of the armchair
some people around you are drama queens in life, everything is ramped up and distorted...well this is the same thing
it's emotional masturbation
Desperately Seeking Sensation: Fear, Reward, and the Human Need for Novelty
Neuroscience Begins to Shine Light on the Neural Basis of Sensation-Seeking
by
Brenda Patoine - See more at:
Desperately Seeking Sensation: Fear, Reward, and the Human Need for Novelty
BRIEFING PAPER
Ann Whitman
(212)223-4040
awhitman@dana.org
Johanna Goldberg
(212)223-4040
jgoldberg@dana.org
Why are some people drawn to intense, even fear-inducing thrills while others shun the mere thought? How is it that the same horror movie can be entertainment to one person and tension-filled torture to another? Is something different going on in the brains of these people?
Sensation-seeking, the tendency to seek out novel experiences, is a general personality trait that has been extensively studied in psychological research, but neuroscience is just beginning to take aim at it. Beyond understanding why one person relishes the fright factor while the next studiously avoids it, scientists are asking how sensation-seeking relates to substance abuse, addiction, and anxiety disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, areas where the clinical and public-health implications are most clear.
Some studies suggest that people who seek out high-sensation experiences even at great personal risk—so-called high-sensation seekers—are more vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse and more likely to engage in other risky behaviors, such as sex with multiple partners. The hope is that by understanding the neural mechanisms underlying such behaviors, both at the molecular level and at the systems level, it might be possible to develop pharmacological or behavioral therapies to prevent or treat addiction or help people channel their taste for adventure toward safer pursuits.
Neuroscience is beginning to tease apart how the brain of a high-sensation seeker might be different from that of someone who generally avoids risk. Recent brain imaging studies have offered some intriguing clues, finding a direct link between the size of the hippocampus and experience-seeking behaviori and shedding light on how the brain responds differently to intense or arousing stimuli in highs vs. lows.
An Overactive ‘Approach’ System?In a recent study using functional MRI,ii Jane Joseph, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Kentucky found that different brain areas are activated in high- vs. low-sensation seekers in response to strongly arousing stimuli. The subjects viewed emotionally arousing pictures—some intensely arousing, others more neutral—while researchers recorded their brain activity. Regardless of whether the pictures were pleasant (e.g., mild erotica) or unpleasant (e.g., a snake poised to strike), the high-sensation seekers showed early and strong activation in the insula. (See Figure 1a.) This brain structure acts in part as a gateway where visceral signals from the body are first received and interpreted by the brain, Joseph says, so it made sense to her team that it was active in high-arousal states.
