Fear

Manipulating brain cells called astrocytes using light prevented the retention of fear memories long-term, according to new research. This opens the door to potential treatments for conditions like PTSD, which is characterized by abnormal fear memory.

It's normal to feel anxious about going under the knife, but stress before surgery can range from mild anxiety to overwhelming fear. Now, researchers believe a tech more often seen in video games – augmented reality – can help relieve that anxiety.

Pennywise, Twisty, Wrinkles, Bozo, Krusty and Ronald McDonald. What do these names have in common? They're all clowns, and, to some people, they're terrifying. A new study has examined the widespread phenomenon of clown phobia to determine how it begins.

A new smartphone app is using augmented reality to help reduce a person’s fear of spiders. In a study published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders the app was found to significantly reduce feelings of fear and disgust after a two-week program.

The human brain reacts completely differently to a threat that invades your personal space compared to those that are further away, according to a new study that combined MRI scans with VR technology.

New research from the University of Queensland (UQ) has now found a chemical pathway that helps the brain wipe fear memories, which could lead to new potential treatments for phobias and other fear-related anxiety disorders.

A new study has used a VR-based treatment to help people overcome a fear of heights. The treatment is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of a completely automated therapy guided by a computer-generated virtual therapist that responds to the patient's voice.

Scientists have directly identified the cluster of neurons in the brain responsible for recalling long-term memories of traumatic experiences, helping answer the question of whether therapy suppresses fear-based memories or if it actually rewrites those memories.​

Researchers recently discovered a startling side-effect of the common antibiotic doxycycline - it can disrupt and suppress the formation of fear memories in the brain, pointing toward novel new treatments for disorders such as PTSD.

Researchers have come up with a way to eliminate specific fears from the brain without the subject actually needing to confront them, an approach that could offer more comfortable ways of treating phobias and post-traumatic stress disorders.

​​A team of researchers from MIT has discovered a circuit in the brains of mice that, when stimulated, can prolong the effects of therapy designed to suppress fear-related phobias.

Therapy is a field that could eventually have a fruitful marriage with VR. One developer recently launched an educational/simulation experience for the Oculus Rift that's basically therapy for arachnophobes. We took the forward-thinking Fearless for a spin.