![predator vs prey mindset predator vs prey mindset](https://image1.slideserve.com/2597561/predator-prey-relationships-n.jpg)
With close confrontation (the circa-strike zone), prey show active defense (fight or flight), mediated by the dorsal central gray ( Fanselow, 1994). This “alarm” reaction ( Masterson & Crawford, 1982) involves yet higher vigilance, sympathetic activation of glands and smooth muscles, movement of blood to the gross muscles, and cardiac acceleration. Davis (1998), who demonstrated that fearful animals were hyperreactive to startling stimuli presented during conditioned fear cues-a response also mediated by projections from the amygdala.Īs the distance from the predator is further reduced, prey animals increasingly mobilize for action. Further understanding of this defense circuit was provided by M. Studying conditioned fear, Fanselow (1994) found that initial motor “freezing” depended on projections from the amygdala to the brain’s ventral central gray, and Kapp, Whalen, Supple, and Pascoe (1992) found that bradycardia evoked by a fear cue covaried closely with cell firing in the amygdala. When prey animals perceive a predator in the distance, limbic circuitry in their brains initiates a range of defensive reactions, including motor inhibition, focused attention to the threat, and decelerating heart rate ( fear bradycardia Campbell, Wood, & McBride, 1997) if the predator gets closer, these reactions are augmented. Research with animals shows that brain and reflex reactions change systematically with the proximity of aversive cues.