@misc{cogprints5035,
volume = {15},
title = {The human fear-circuitry and fear-induced
fainting in healthy individuals
The paleolithic-threat hypothesis },
author = {Dr. Stefan Bracha and Adam S. Bracha and Dr. Andrew E. Williams and Tyler C. Ralston and Jennifer M. Matsukawa},
year = {2005},
pages = {238--241},
journal = {Clinical Autonomic Research},
keywords = {fainting, human evolution, war, combat, fear-circuitry, androgens, stress-induced disorders },
url = {http://cogprints.org/5035/},
abstract = {The Paleolithic-Threat
hypothesis reviewed here posits
that habitual efferent fainting can
be traced back to fear-induced
allelic polymorphisms that were
selected into some genomes of
anatomically, mitochondrially, and
neurally modern humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) in the Mid-Paleolithic because of the survival
advantage they conferred during
periods of inescapable threat. We
posit that during Mid-Paleolithic
warfare an encounter with ?a
stranger holding a sharp object?
was consistently associated with
threat to life. A heritable hard-
wired or firm-wired (prepotentiated) predisposition to abruptly
increase vagal tone and collapse
flaccidly rather than freeze or
attempt to flee or fight in response
to an approaching sharp object, a
minor injury, or the sight of blood,
polymorphism for the hemodynamically ?paradoxical? flaccid-
immobility in response to these
stimuli may have increased some
non-combatants? chances of survival. This is consistent with the
unusual age and sex pattern of
fear-induced fainting. The Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis also predicts a link to various hypo-androgenic states (e.g. low dehydroxyepiandrosterone-sulfate. We offer
five predictions testable via epidemiological, clinical, and ethological/primatological methods. The
Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis has
implications for research in the
aftermath of man-made disasters,
such as terrorism against civilians,
a traumatic event in which this
hypothesis predicts epidemics of
fear-induced fainting}
}