What effects do scary movies have on the nervous system?

Question

I am doing a science fair on this question - and well, i need info!! So..how do scary movies affect the nervous system? -Thanks!

Answer 1

Basically, the scary movie causes your body to react as if it were actually experiencing the things you see on the screen. Your adrenal glands pump adrenaline into your system so that you'll have the strength and endurance to fight off an attacker; this causes an increase in your heart beat, which in turn causes you to work up a sweat. Your senses are heightened, and you could jump out of your seat when you get startled by the next thing you see. You get goosebumps because our evolutionary ancestors had a more full covering of body hair, and if body hair stood on end it made an animal look larger, so maybe a predator would pass it by since the prey looked like it could defend itself better. So watching a scary movie causes your body to react as if you were really in danger, and those reactions are mainly tied to surviving in the wild.

Answer 2

By stimulating the Fight or Flight reflex:

1. Fear stimulates the sensory information to CNS
2. CNS stimulates the hypothalamic neuron and via sympathetic motor neurons will act on sympathetic ganglion cells of adrenal medullae (chromaffin cells)
3. Adrenal medulla responses by releasing epinephrine and norepinephrine
4. These two hormones act on target cells to yield a response of general sympathetic activation

Answer 3

They activate the Fight or Flight autonomic reactions. Read up on what these are and you will impress.