“What’s scarier than bats in the belfry? Easy: tarantulas in an MRI tube.
To observe the brain’s panic-response network in full freak, British researchers asked 20 volunteers to lie inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. One by one, the scientists then had each person view a screen that showed a tarantula crawling closer … and … closer to the subject’s feet. As the spider advanced, MRI scans allowed researchers to see flashes of activity switch from the volunteer’s prefrontal cortex – a region associated with anxiety – to a spot in the midbrain known to involve intense fear. But the neural terror waned when the tarantula retreated, “regardless of the spider’s absolute proximity,” wrote the study’s authors. In other words, as long as the spider was moving away, no matter how close it still was, the volunteers relaxed.
Titled “Neural Activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula,” the study was published today by the National Academy of Sciences. They could simply have dubbed their paper: “Watching the Willies.” What the researchers glimpsed, they say, was the brain’s danger-tracking system at work.”
Read more at Body Odd (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
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I used to have a phobia about tarantulas, it’s not as bad as it was. Passed one while walking down the street in Chorlton (Manchester) last year. Must have been someone’s escaped pet.
With encouragement from a friend we put it in a tupperware box, took it with us to the bank and then Greggs the bakers, (well we were going there anyway), and then he left me to deal with rehousing it as he had to get back to work.
The RSPCA came to collect after 3 hours and their arachnid guy told me it was a Chilean rose tarantula. The Chilean rose has a defense mechanism involving irritant hairs on its abdomen which it lets loose on would be attackers when scared… so maybe they have a phobia about us too.
“It had to be terror sweat.”
Most people do not really adore spiders, but I wonder whether that is not mainly due to the fact that we know that there are a few pretty poisoneous around. Or is it the legs .. the hairy legs .. Or the fear that they simply might bite (even if not poisenous)?
But even when you do dare to cup them in your hand .. they have a tendency to escape quite fast. Remember the cloth or such in which you caught the spider .. but when you open it .. GONE … MAGIC!
Even ants can become pretty scare beasts when magnified … true SF!
Worst thing ever when you spot one.. get something to kill or move it with.. turn back and its gone!!