Calling for help controlled by two brain systems

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified two brain areas that control whehter an individual will call out in distress in order to get help. The brain areas involved are the #amygdala> - an area important in detecting and reacting to threats - and the right prefrontal cortex - believed to play a role in achieving goals and attaching to others.

"These findings have far-reaching implications because they help clarify how a balance of two important brain systems can influence an individual's behavior and emotional expression in times of need," says Ned Kalin, senior author on the study. "The findings suggest that how open an individual is willing to be in asking for help may depend more than we thought on how secure that individual feels at any given time in a supportive relationship."

The study will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition during the week of March 7-11.

It is natural for monkeys and humans to seek help from others during difficult circumstances. Calling for help can be crucial for survival according to Kalin, who has studied fear and attachment in monkeys in an attempt to understand anxiety and depression in humans.

Although there can be benefits to crying for help, it can also signal vulnerability, which may attract predators. Thus, there is a trade-off between calling for help and not doing so. The researchers wanted to know the circumstances under which an individual is comfortable expressing a need for help compared to when they are not comfortable doing so.

The current study used #PositronEmissionTomography (PET) to measure the metabolic activity in the brains of 25 rhesus monkeys that had been separated from their cage mates for 30 minutes. The researchers also measured the frequency with which the monkeys called out in an attempt to attract other monkeys.

The animals that called most frequently had high activity in the right prefrontal cortex and less in the amygdala, whereas those calling less frequently showed the opposite pattern.

"Simply measuring brain activity in these two regions allowed us to predict with nearly 80 percent accuracy how much each individual monkey called for help," says Kalin.

The researchers were surprised to find a reduction of activity in the amygdalas of the monkeys who made the most calls. Generally, increased activity in this region is associated with fear and anxiety. One might have expected that the most frightened animals would be most vocal.

"But in our earlier research, we showed that some monkeys will become inhibited and freeze when they're frightened, especially when a predator is nearby and the monkey believes that it hasn't yet been discovered by the predator," Kalin says. "We observed that the greater the fear, the less likely it was that animals would call for help, at least under certain circumstances. If you haven't been discovered by a predator lurking nearby, it's not a good idea to draw attention to yourself by crying out for help."

Humans may process the situation in much the same way, Kalin says.

"People who are less secure and more sensitive to potential threat are likely to have increased amygdala activity that may inhibit their urge to ask for help, which is related to right prefrontal cortex activity," he says.

On the other hand, he adds, "When a person feels safe enough in a relationship to express his or her vulnerabilities, this appears to be associated with a decrease in amygdala activity and an increase in prefrontal cortex activity. As relationships become more secure for the people involved, it's likely that changes in amygdala and prefrontal cortex activity may be responsible for the accompanying increase in sharing of intimate feelings."

Kalin believes that willingness to call for help likely depends on a number of factors, such as fear or threat level, general temperament, past experience and the social support system an individual has, to name a few.

Collaborators on the paper include Richard Davidson, Andrew Fox, Terrence Olakes, Steven Shelton and Alexander Converse, all of UW-Madison.