Horror movies are good for the brain

In situations of acute stress, like watching a horror film, leading to the brain to recall bad experiences and to reorganize its mode of operation, detailed a group of researchers in the journal Science.

Acute stress alters the way our brain works. This change in brain state can be understood as a strategic redeployment of resources that are vital when survival is at stake.

The experiment conducted by Erno Hermans, University of New York, shows how the brain reorganizes in a stressful situation, such as when watching violent scenes, which makes stress occurred in the past revive.

When the brain is disrupted, our senses are heightened and fear creates a state of alert that strengthens the memories of stressful experiences, but hurts our ability to analyze.

This type of study previously conducted on animals exposed to acute stress guidelines marked on the neurochemical reactions, for various hormones and neurotransmitters that are able to alter some cellular properties in large-scale neuronal populations in the brain are released.

Activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, resulting in increased systemic release of corticosteroids, is the hallmark of the stress response.