Fear Factory: Stanford neurobiologists use VR to explore responses to stress, anxiety, and fear

Andrew Huberman of Stanford University School of Medicine is studying the neuroscience of how what we see influences our emotions, especially fear.

Using virtual reality (VR), he exposes study participants to terrifying scenarios, including attack encounters with sharks, spiders, and a pit bull, and stepping off a very high, narrow plank.

Huberman, an associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford, measures participant responses with sensors attached to their skin, by monitoring their pupil diameters, and by simply asking participants to say what they’re feeling.

He aims to test techniques that, if successful, could help people with phobias, generalized anxiety syndrome, or post-traumatic stress disorder recover their composure in situations that trigger fear.

Read the Stanford Medicine Magazine article: http://stanmed.stanford.edu.

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