If you’ve ever had a bad experience with a particular place and, in the future, physically feel anxious as you approach it again, there’s a good reason: our brains may record and physically map that experience for future reference, a new study in PLOS Biology suggests.
This has implications for mental health, because it helps us understand how worry works.
“The more that we understand how the mechanisms by which cognition works, the better we can help people who have problems with their cognition,” says David Redish, a University of Minnesota neuroscientist and an author of the study. “Anxiety and worry are very prevalent in humanity these days.”
In the study, scientists devised a scenario where rats would have to encounter something very negative to them — a scary Lego robot scorpion — to reach a treat.
“Imagination is a physical thing,” says Redish. “And that includes not just imagination ...
