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.

• 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.

• Overview of the Adrenal Glands

  • Along with catecholamines (adrenaline), these hormones control a variety of functions including kidney function, metabolism, fight-or-flight response, and sex hormone levels.

• 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:

• The Stress Response

  • The SNS plays a key role in mediating the neural response to stress known as the fight-or-flight response.
  • The hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is an endocrine cascade that mediates several aspects of physiological stress, including responses to acute stressors (i.e., fight-or-flight response) but it also causes chronic stress.

• Exhaustion

  • Physiologists define stress as how the body reacts to a stressor (a stimulus that causes stress), real or imagined.
  • When the threat or stressor is identified or realized, the body's stress response is in a state of alarm.
  • During this stage, adrenaline will be produced in order to bring about the fight-or-flight response.
  • Although the body begins to try to adapt to the strains or demands of the environment, the body cannot keep this up indefinitely, so its resources are gradually depleted.
  • The result can manifest itself in obvious illnesses such as ulcers, depression, diabetes, trouble with the digestive system, or even cardiovascular problems, along with other mental illnesses.

• Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System

  • Many think of 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.