Abstract

Stress and fear have biological functions that, when neuromodulated, make adaptive otherwise maladaptive responses. While the concept of a defensive cascade supports cognitive understanding and hypothesis testing, approaching this domain by function using an ecological approach brings the pragmatic stance with methods for prevention and intervention. Stress, fear, and threat have distinct functions to, respectively, constrain cognition, induce cognitive focus, and reflexively respond when in danger. We differentiate reference frames between a fixed-point reference frame that distinguishes the event (stimulus) from the person (responder and response) and an experiential reference frame within cascading events. Unrecognized, the characteristics and actions of an HRO bring modulation to the defense cascade, check the effects of stress, interrupt cascading fear reactions, and abridge threat reflexes.

Full Text
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