Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave
I was munching on a bread roll and fear overtook me such that my mouth went instantly dry and I had to spit the food out or I would have chocked.
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Hi Alex,
The dry mouth symptom is part of the fight or flight response.
Apparently it starts in the amygdala in the brain.
Some less important parts of the body shut down, such as the digestive tract.
As a whole, blood pressure goes up.
Coronary arteries dilate, more circulation goes to the brain and muscles
but at the expense of constriction of the blood vessels in salivary
glands and in some other areas.
Hence the dry mouth symptom.
In 2011, researchers at the University of London did a study
where they scanned 90 students brains with MRI.
They found that students who identified themselves as "conservatives"
tended to have larger amygdalas than those who identified themselves
as "liberals". So much so that in the sample of students in the study they
were able to predict that with an accuracy of 71.6% ± 4.8%.
Researchers then wondered whether a fear or disgust response would
kick-in more readily for those with larger amygdalas and there have been
some studies where they flash up various images such as teddy bears
and open wounds to subjects in MRI machines and it appears as if there
is a correlation.
Is it the more liberal you are, the more threatening the situation
needs to be before you start to feel a symptom such as a dry mouth?
Sounds like the dire situation you were in in the boat would get anyone's full attention.
The 2011 University of London paper :-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984/