Sciencey Wiencey: Listen

Mark McCullough investigates more Doctor Who science, this time from Listen.

Fear is a Super Power

Listen’s take-home message was that of ‘fear is a superpower’. Metaphorically this beautiful analogy suggested that things which you perceive as weaknesses can actually be manipulated into strengths. That’s not to say that fear is a sign of weakness, it isn’t. To put it simply fear is a normal reaction to a situation in which an individual perceives danger towards them. Whilst I love the imagery produced from the line, there is no denying the fact that it is actually grounded in some very basic science which I hope to take you through in the course of this article.

The human brain is a complex unit consisting of many different aspects each with a specific function. The region of the brain which processes fear is the Amygdala located in the temporal lobe of the brain. The Amygdala is the emotional processor of the brain; therefore fear has a somewhat surprising classification as an emotion. Once a threat is perceived the brain, the Amygdala initiates a response which triggers the fight or flight mechanisms. When this response is activated the signal is sent from the Amygdala to Hypothalamus. This then communicates with another part of the brain, the pituitary gland. This then secretes a hormone which communicates with the Adrenal Medulla, located in the Adrenal Gland just above the kidneys. This signal leads to the release of the hormones of the Sympathetic Nervous System i.e. Adrenaline.

Adrenaline is the main driver of the ‘symptoms’ we associate with fear. I am now going to take you through each of these and explain why you feel each sensation. But first I am going to get you to imagine a situation to help demonstrate. Imagine you are casually standing in a field, and you look round to see a man pointing a sword at you. What immediate changes do you notice about your body? You will have done one of two things, positioned your body as if you are about to run away, or as if you are going to fight. Either way, you will notice that you are no longer standing relaxed, your muscles have tensed and the fight or flight response has begun. So what next?

• First thing you are going to notice is that your heart is beating faster. Your muscles are going to need energy, and to get that they are going to need a good blood supply. To get this it is necessary for the heart to beat faster to deliver more blood. The effect of adrenaline is to increase the heart rate.
• Oxygen a vital part of how our bodies produce energy. For this reason your brain will increase your breathing rate. This allows for more oxygen to travel to the muscles in the blood. However it can leave the person feeling very short of breath.
• You may find that you feel cold; this is because your body is redirecting blood from where it is not needed towards the muscles that need it more. For this reason you may find yourself pale in all areas but the face which can flush. Gentlemen may also face a particular (but temporary) problem due to redirection of blood.
• Focusing on small details may become difficult as the pupils dilate to maximise the amount of light that they can take in. The idea behind this is to process as much visual data as possible to allow the brain to work out the best way to avert the threat.
• Dry Mouth is not an uncommon experience as the digestive system begins to shut down, no saliva is produced.
• Another consequence of digestive shutdown is a Sore throat/stomach. The reason that the digestive system ceases to function in situations of fear is that it isn’t needed. If you don’t get out of the life threatening situation you’ll never need to eat again anyway. So there is no point in expending energy. The pains come from the disturbance to normal function of the intestines.
• Loss of sphincter control can also occur if the threat is particularly extreme (or is perceived to be). This can be either the anal sphincter or the sphincter of the bladder and sometimes both. I don’t think I need to explain what happens when the muscles holding something in suddenly relax.
• Tinglings and Pains are also possible as the body tries to respond to the fear state by compensation.

To be honest when put like that, fear does sound pretty horrible. However I have claimed earlier in the article that it is a superpower. It is, because the net result of all this is that your muscles are capable of more than they normally would be. If you chose to fight, you would be able to fight so much harder than ever before. If you chose to run, you will be able to run faster than ever before. Why? Because fear is telling your brain that your life is on the line, and you brain is doing everything it can to keep you alive.

Is it always a Super Power?

I’m going to take a step outside of the narrative here because I do feel that is something which may be beneficial to cover. Some of you may have read what I called the symptoms of fear and recognised them. The reason for this is because they match exactly the symptoms (hence why I used the word) of what is commonly known as a Panic Attack. Understanding a Panic Attack is something which is key to helping to manage it. To put it simply, it is the onset of fear without an appropriate stimulus. For whatever reason, you brain is telling itself that you are in trouble and as I have said above begins a response to keep you alive.

Something that is very important to realise for sufferers of Panic Attacks is that the things you feel are completely normal. They are a standard reaction to fear (I have used bold to this extent above to help emphasise the point). The problem occurs when people worry about the symptoms, thus becoming more anxious which in turn makes the fear worse and by extension the symptoms. This can create a vicious spiral where the Panic Attack continues to worsen. This can be prevented if the person has the knowledge that the initial symptoms are normal. To tell you the truth, they are actually a sign that your body is working well. The brains intention is to help you, but it is commonly misperceived as being the other way.

Hiders or no Hiders?

Listen is one of Doctor Who’s strangest episodes given the fact that there is still some debate about the existence of the monster(s) within the episode. Much of this is actually down to perception: defined as your minds’ interpretation of sensations. This perception is usually formed by a combination of knowledge, understanding of how the world works and your own personal experiences.

One of the mainstays of human perception is the Gestalt theory which states that the whole image is more important than the sum of its independent parts. A sub-aspect of the theory focuses on the Law of Closure which states that the mind will try to fill in the gaps when given only half of the picture. The Law of Continuity then follows on from this to state that the mind will group things along the simplest path. A further extension of this is the Law of Pragnanz which says that the image formed will be reduced to the simplest possible form.

That’s the beauty of Listen; we are presented with small snippets of information meaning we have to use our perception of events to piece together a whole image. The thing is that people’s brains function differently, so the simplest possible form will change. For the Doctor who spends his time around monsters it is likely that he will perceive it that way. For a person in more a normal situation they will tend to rationalise the other way. For us, as viewers of Doctor Who are actually more likely to attribute it to monster simply because it is the smoothest path given our previous experiences. Was there really a monster in Listen? The answer: it depends how your brain is wired.