Fight flight or freeze

Introduction

The fight, flight, or freeze response is a fundamental survival mechanism that organisms use to react to threats. This response involves physiological and behavioral changes that prepare an individual to either confront the danger, escape from it, or remain immobile to avoid detection. Understanding the nuances of these responses, including the factors that influence them and their underlying mechanisms, is crucial for comprehending how different species, including humans, manage acute stress.

Key Insights

Trait-like Fear Response Assessment:
- A new measure, the Fight, Flight, Freeze Questionnaire, has been developed to assess individual differences in trait-like fear responses, providing a reliable and valid tool for evaluating these tendencies.
Visual Triggers in Mice:
- Mice use visual cues to decide between freezing and fleeing. A rapidly looming overhead stimulus triggers fleeing, while a small moving disk simulating a predator induces freezing.
Dynamic Defense Strategies:
- Freezing and fleeing are interconnected and flexible defensive responses. They are controlled by different motor systems, allowing for quick switching between behaviors to effectively evade predators.
Personality and Metabolic Phenotype in Flatfish:
- In olive flounder, personality traits (bold vs. shy) and metabolic rates influence defense responses. Bold individuals exhibit a fight-flight response with increased respiration, while shy individuals show a freeze-hide response with reduced oxygen consumption.
Cardiovascular Adjustments During Freezing:
- In rats, freezing behavior involves specific changes in sympathetic nerve activity, leading to visceral vasoconstriction without affecting skeletal muscle vasculature. This prepares the body for a rapid fight or flight response.
Freezing as Flight Preparation in Humans:
- In humans, freezing behavior, characterized by reduced heart rate and visual exploration, can prepare individuals for a quick escape from threats. This response is adaptive and enhances the speed of subsequent flight actions .

Conclusion

The fight, flight, or freeze response is a complex and adaptive mechanism influenced by various factors, including sensory inputs, personality traits, and physiological states. Visual cues play a significant role in triggering these responses in animals, while individual differences in personality and metabolic rates can determine the preferred defense strategy. In both animals and humans, freezing behavior is not merely a passive response but can serve as a preparatory phase for rapid escape, highlighting its adaptive significance in survival.

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Fight flight or freeze

Summary

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

Development and Psychometric Investigation of an Inventory to Assess Fight, Flight, and Freeze Tendencies: The Fight, Flight, Freeze Questionnaire

The Fight, Flight, and Freeze questionnaire effectively assesses trait-like fear as it relates to individual differences in temperament, personality, and behavioral inhibition.

Vision Guides Selection of Freeze or Flight Defense Strategies in Mice

Mice can innately choose between flight and freeze defense strategies based on vision alone, with a small moving disk simulating predator cruising overhead effectively inducing freezing behavior.

Die hard: A blend of freezing and fleeing as a dynamic defense—implications for the control of defensive behavior

Freezing and fleeing together form a complex and flexible defensive response, likely controlled by different motor systems that inter-connect to allow fast switching between these behaviors.

Fight-flight or freeze-hide? Personality and metabolic phenotype mediate physiological defence responses in flatfish.

Bold and shy individuals in the olive flounder species exhibit distinct metabolic responses to stressful situations, with shy individuals adopting a passive 'freeze-hide' strategy and bold individuals adopting an active 'fight-flight' response.

Role of differential changes in sympathetic nerve activity in the preparatory adjustments of cardiovascular functions during freezing behaviour in rats

Freezing behavior in rats is associated with regionally specific alterations in sympathetic nerve activity, leading to visceral vasoconstriction and potentially explaining the immediate increase in muscular blood flow at the onset of fight or flight behavior.

Freezing as Flight Preparation: Evidence from Electrodermal, Cardiovascular and Gaze Recordings

Freezing behavior in humans can aid in preparing for a threat escape, with reduced heart rate, increased electrodermal activity, and reduced visual exploration predicting flight responses.

Freezing of gaze during action preparation under threat imminence

Freezing behavior in humans during threat anticipation can aid in preparing for an escape, with reduced heart rate, increased electrodermal activity, and reduced visual exploration predicting flight responses.

Does "fight or flight" need updating?

The term "fight or flight" may need updating to better reflect the complex sequence of responses humans exhibit in response to danger, considering recent advances in stress research.

Neural Dynamics of Shooting Decisions and the Switch from Freeze to Fight

Threat-anticipatory midbrain activity in the periaqueductal gray-PAG facilitates decision-making by facilitating action preparation, while the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex plays a role in switching from preparation to action.

Cognitive Factors Affecting Freeze-like Behavior in Humans

Freeze-like behavior in humans is influenced by cognitive factors, such as perceived effectiveness of alternative actions and motivational orientation, with loss-avoiders choosing to freeze more often than reward-seekers.

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