This video uses animation and a fairy tale concept to provide information about the fight-or-flight response mechanism that is activated in humans when faced with a perceived threat. Little Blue Riding Hood is faced with the threat of a wolf, and the activation of the fight-or-flight response mechanism is subsequently initiated. Major parts of the brain play the other roles in the video. The specific order and progression of the response is outlined through this experience as the video goes from Little Blue Riding Hood sensing the threat of the wolf, the amygdala notifying the hypothalamus, which then involves the autonomic and sympathetic nervous systems. Finally, the epinephrine team provides an attack to the threat and resolves the Little Blue Riding Hood's predicament.

This video is intended for a high school or university student audience because people in this age bracket could better understand and relate more to stress and how our bodies deal with such situations. Furthermore, the depth in which the video explains the science of the response would be relatively difficult for someone in middle school or younger to understand. Lastly, we attempted to make the video more engaging by following the structure of a well-known fairy tale for the script and setting of the video in light of the relatively heavy scientific content. We hope the generation of a script with visually appealing animations allows for a creative and informative video on the fight-or-flight response mechanism.

This video was made by McMaster Demystifying Medicine students Stanis Xavier, Sina Nastarani, Mannish Jogendran and Noor Al-Switi

Copyright McMaster University 2017

Please let us know how you liked this video and suggest additional topics for us to demystify below.

References:

Bracha, H. S. (2004). Freeze, flight, fight, fright, faint: adaptationist perspectives on the acute stress response spectrum. CNS spectrums, 9(09), 679-685.

Fishman, A. P. (1976). Hypoxia on the pulmonary circulation. How and where it acts. Circulation Research, 38(4), 221-231.

Jansen, A. S., Van Nguyen, X., Karpitskiy, V., Mettenleiter, T. C., & Loewy, A. D. (1995). Central command neurons of the sympathetic nervous system: basis of the fight-or-flight response. Science, 270(5236), 644.

Kemeny, M. E. (2003). The psychobiology of stress. Current directions in psychological science, 12(4), 124-129.

Milosevic, I. (2015). Fight-or-Flight Response. Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear, 196, 179.

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