Afraid of Snakes? Your Pulvinar May Be to Blame

Seeing as it is Halloween, fear is a good subject to do a blog on.  Scientists have discovered that certain parts of your brain fear the legless reptile.  The snake based neurons may have threaded all the way back to our primate past.  Another thing is you have to look at location.  Many people who live in a city will have a great fear of snakes because of the fact that we, as humans, fear what we do not know.  Some scientists believe that the fear results from our pulvinar, the part of the brain that receives information from our eyes.  Humans have clusters of pulvinars and that truly results in our fear.



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/science/afraid-of-snakes-your-pulvinar-may-be-to-blame.html?ref=science&_r=0