Ready and waiting: Freezing as active action preparation under threat

What is it about?

When you know something bad is about to happen, your body prepares itself to deal with the threat. This study aimed to disentangle some of those responses in anticipation to a threat that you could or could not defend yourself from.

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Why is it important?

Freezing in humans has received a lot of interest in recent years, but an important question is what affects anticipatory changes in physiological responses. This study showed that reductions in heart rate and a certain frequency range of body sway reflect preparing to respond to threat, during a preparatory interval in which nothing happened except anticipation.