The brain may be hard-wired to detect snakes
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You can quit blaming movies like this for your fear of snakes.
Instead, blame your earliest primate ancestors. (Via New Line Cinema / "Snakes on a Plane")
A group of scientists at the University of California-Davis wanted to test why people find the legless lizards so creepy, even if they've never seen one in person. Detecting snakes, they thought, was a trait hard wired by evolution. (Via BBC)
To test their theory, they implanted microelectrodes in the brains of two monkeys raised on a farm. The monkeys were shown images of snakes, others monkeys and various shapes. (Via YouTube / SMCBuki)
Since these monkeys had never seen snakes before, any potential response to a snake would not have been the result of memory or learning.
As the researchers predicted, neurons in the part of the brain that controls vision responded faster and stronger to images of the snakes. (Via YouTube / Nature North)
As one of the study's authors explained: "This part of the visual system appears to be the sort of quicker, automatic visual system that allows us to respond without even being consciously aware of the object that we are responding to." (Via NPR)
The researchers say this supports the theory that primates, including humans, evolved their vision skills over time to detect and react to threats like snakes. (Via National Geographic)
Which makes sense — scientists believe the first modern predators of primates — 100 or so million years ago — looked exactly like snakes. (Via YouTube / Animal Wire)
The authors say they want to expand their study to test other parts of the brain, as well as the responses to other types of predators.
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