Science+Fair+HE

Fear- Fight or Flight
Question: How does your sex affect fear? Does being female or male affect whether you turn towards the fear or away from it? Does heart rate differ between either sex after getting scared?

Purpose: To see how males and female differ in a place of fear. To see how heart rates differ between sexes when scared.

Hypothesis: If a male is placed in a situation of fear, then they will be prepared to fight the source of fear. The males heart rate will increase. If a female is placed in a situation of fear, then they will be prepared for flight (turning away or running from the source of fear.) The females heart rate will increase more drastically than the males.

Definition of Fear- A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined.


 * Fear is a chain reaction
 * Fight or Flight response is from the sympathetic nervous system.
 * Starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, also known as the fight or flight response
 * More than 100 billion nerve cells make up a complex system of communications that are the beginning point of everything we sense.
 * Many parts of the brain are involved in the process of fear.
 * **Thalamus** - decides where to send incoming sensory data (from eyes , ears, mouth, skin)
 * **Sensory cortex** - interprets sensory data
 * **Hippocampus** - stores and retrieves conscious memories; processes sets of stimuli to establish context
 * **Amygdala** - decodes emotions; determines possible threat; stores fear memories
 * **Hypothalamus** - activates "fight or flight" response. Will send a nervous signal to center of Adrenal Gland to the adrenal medulla : Will give of adrenalin calledepinephrine
 * Epinephrine: Chemical signal attached to the circulatory system- Will bind to the surface of cells.
 * If attached to liver, it releases glycogen which then turns into glucose.
 * Epinephrine and glucose together makes a huge source of energy.
 * Epinephrine goes to different parts of the body and it has different responses based on where it goes.
 * If it goes to the lungs, it will help to increase the speed in which breaths are taken.
 * When it goes to the cells in the heart, it will increase heart rate.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;">It will also go to the digestive system and it will slow down the process in which you digest because when you are put in a place of fear, your body does not need to have its usual amount of focus on digesting food.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;">It will go to the muscles of your body and make sure that more blood can flow to those sections.
 * Creating fear takes place in the brain and isn't a conscious action
 * There are two different ways involved in the fear response: A quick and messy wa y and a more thoughtful way
 * After recognizing a stimulus, the brain sends the sensory data to the thalamus.
 * The thalamus has yet to figure out if this stimulus is one of danger or not, but since it could possible be dangerous, it send a message to the amygdala which then takes precautions to try and protect you.
 * The amygdala tells the hypothalamus to begin the fight or flight response.
 * Information sent to thalamus
 * Thalamus sends information to sensory cortex, it is interpreted for meaning of noise
 * Sensory Cortex understands that there are more than one possible sources, passes information on to hippocampus to find circumstances
 * It does much studying of the situation and then decides the source. It then sends message to the amygdala and would either say that the source is dangerous or isn't, which would then determine whether or not the amygdala would tell the hypothalamus to send or not to send the fight or flight response.

=**Work Cited**=

Andersen, Paul. "Fight or Flight Response." Bozeman Science, 09 Jan. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2GywoS77qc>.
 * This video is credible because the author, Paul Andersen, has been teaching at Bozeman High School in Montana for nineteen years. Paul graduated from Montana State University and has a degree in Biology with Broadfield Science Certification. He also has a Masters of Science in Science Education.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"Fight or Flight." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Stress Recess: //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">.University of Texas, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. <http://cmhc.utexas.edu/stressrecess/Level_One/fof.html>.
 * This is a university website, which makes it factual and reliable and many sites link to it stating it as a reliable source.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"HOW CELLS COMMUNICATE DURING THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">How Cells Communicate During the Fight or Flight Response //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. The University of Utah, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/fight_flight/>.
 * This site is reliable because it is a school website (edu) and many different sites link to it. Also, this site has its own reference list and upon researching these links, all the information matches up.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"How Fear Works." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">HowStuffWorks //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. How Stuff Works., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/fear.htm>.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 24px;">Reliable site because many different sites are linking to it and it is used in many other pages viewed in their references

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"Momentum." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Florida Science. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. 306-15. Print
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 24px;">Science book used in class.