Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ldtCbVQLkSc Those who tend to be anxious have a 6th sense superpower that effectively protects them from danger.  A new study from Caltech’s cognitive neuroscience department shows that anxious individuals more effectively flee from subtle dangers. The study participants were challenged with a series of virtual reality threats characterized as slow that are impending or fast that are immediate.  Brain activity was assessed by real time MRI.   The most anxious individuals did a better job of dodging slow threats while all participants performed about the same with fast threats.  If you tend to be anxious and take a lot of ribbing about your risk aversion from your friends and family, just tell them that you have a very special sense that someday may save you and also them from disaster. Bowen J. Fung, Song Qi, Demis Hassabis, Nathaniel Daw & Dean Mobbs. Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety.  Nature Human Behaviour (2019) .  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-