fight or flight

Examples of fight or flight in the following topics:

• The Fight-or-Flight Response

  • The fight-or-flight response is regulated by the release of adrenaline or noradrenaline.
  • The fight-or-flight response (also called the acute stress response) was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon.
  • Upon sensing a threat the brain stimulates the hypothalamus to secrete corticotropin-releasing hormone that induces adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary to stimulate the release of cortisol from the adrenal cortex to increase blood sugar levels in preparation for fight or flight.
  • However, a short boost to the immune system shortly after the fight-or-flight response is activated has been described.
  • Discuss the endocrine system's role in the fight-or-flight response to stress

• Adrenal Medulla

  • These water-soluble hormones are the major hormones underlying the fight-or-flight response.
  • The secreted adrenaline and noradrenaline play an important role in the fight-or-flight response.
  • All of these effects are characteristic of the fight-or-flight response.

• Sympathetic Nervous System

  • Sympathetic ganglia are the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system that initiate fight-or-flight, stress-mediated responses.
  • They deliver information to the body about stress and impending danger, and are responsible for the familiar fight-or-flight response.
  • There are usually 21 or 23 pairs of these ganglia: 3 in the cervical region, 12 in the thoracic region, 4 in the lumbar region, 4 in the sacral region and a single, unpaired ganglion lying in front of the coccyx called the ganglion impar.

• How the Body Responds to Stress

  • When presented with stress, the body responds by releasing hormones that will prepare it for the fight-or-flight response.
  • When a threat or danger is perceived, the body responds by releasing hormones that will prepare it for the fight-or-flight response.
  • The body reacts in a primitive sense to what it perceives as impending danger in what is colloquially termed the fight-or-flight response (sometimes "fight-flight-or-freeze").
  • Blood from your skin, organs, and extremities is directed to the brain and larger muscles in preparation to fight the impending danger or flee from it.
  • Blood from the skin, internal organs, and extremities, is directed to the brain and large muscles in preparation for "fight" or "flight."

• Sympathetic Responses

  • Stress—as in the hyperarousal of the flight-or-fight response—is thought to counteract the parasympathetic system, which generally works to promote maintenance of the body at rest.
  • The SNS is perhaps best known for mediating the neuronal and hormonal stress response commonly known as the fight-or-flight response, also known as sympatho-adrenal response of the body.
  • The fight-or-flight response was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon.
  • In prehistoric times, the human fight-or-flight response manifested fight as aggressive, combative behavior and flight as fleeing potentially threatening situations, such as being confronted by a predator.
  • Males are more likely to respond to an emergency situation with aggression (fight), while females are more likely to flee (flight), turn to others for help, or attempt to defuse the situation (tend and befriend).

• Control of Autonomic Nervous System Function

  • It is often referred to as a quick response mobilizing system that initiates the body's fight-or-flight response.
  • PSNS input to the ANS is responsible for the stimulation of feed-and-breed and rest-and-digest responses, as opposed to the fight-or-flight response initiated by the SNS.

• The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

  • The sympathetic nervous system activates the "fight or flight" response under sudden or stressful circumstances, such as taking an exam or seeing a bear.
  • These are not the only two options; "fight or flight" is perhaps better phrased as "fight or flight or freeze," where in the third option the body stiffens and action cannot be taken.
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result when a human experiences this "fight or flight or freeze" mode with great intensity or for large amounts of time.
  • The information is then sent back via efferent nerves, or nerves that carry instructions from the CNS, back through the somatic system.
  • Reflexes can be categorized as either monosynaptic or polysynaptic based on the reflex arc used to perform the function.

• Hormonal Regulation of Stress

  • When a threat or danger is perceived, the body responds by releasing hormones that will ready it for the "fight-or-flight" response.
  • The sympathetic division of the vertebrate autonomic nervous system has evolved the fight-or-flight response to counter stress-induced disruptions of homeostasis.
  • This prepares the body for physical activity that may be required to respond to stress: to either fight for survival or to flee from danger .
  • When an animal feels threatened, epinephrine and norepinephrine released by the adrenal medulla prepare the body to fight a threat or flee from it by breaking down stores of glycogen, which provides an immediate boost of energy.
  • Describe the role of the adrenal glands in the "fight-or-flight" response and the body's reaction to stress

• Autonomic Interactions

  • Some processes that are modulated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems but that are not easily labeled as fight or rest include the maintenance of blood pressure when standing and the maintenance of regular heart rhythms.
  • Consider sympathetic as fight or flight and parasympathetic as rest and digest or feed and breed.
  • However, many instances of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity cannot be ascribed to fight or rest situations.
  • For example, standing up from a reclining or sitting position would entail an unsustainable drop in blood pressure if not for a compensatory increase in the arterial sympathetic tonus.
  • The SNS promotes a fight-or-flight response, corresponds with arousal and energy generation, and performs the following functions:

• Epinephrine and Norepinephrine

  • Epinephrine and norepinephrine are released during the flight/fight response, causing vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the kidney.
  • Areas of the body that produce or are affected by norepinephrine are described as noradrenergic.
  • Norepinephrine also underlies the fight-or-flight response, along with epinephrine, directly increasing heart rate, triggering the release of glucose from energy stores, and increasing blood flow to skeletal muscle.
  • They are the flight/fight hormones that are released when the body is under extreme stress.