Adults with phobias have significantly different brain structure The changes are in regions involved with aversion and emotional processing However, children with phobias don’t exhibit these brain differences TUESDAY, June 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Adults' phobias can be correlated with changes in the structure of their brains, a new study finds. What’s more, the neurological differences seen in adults with phobias are more extensive than those observed in people with other forms of . Phobia is the most common anxiety disorder, affecting more than 12% of people, said the research team led by , a psychology research assistant with the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much research directed specifically at phobias, the team said. “Few studies have examined differences in brain structure associated with specific phobia, and those were generally conducted in small samples and targeted isolated regions of interest,” the team wrote. To take a closer look, researchers examined MRI scans from more than 1,400 children and adults with a specific phobia, as well as nearly 3,000 healthy people.
The most common phobias were animal phobias (739 participants) and phobias related to blood, injury or injections (182 participants). They found that people with phobias had increased thickness in some parts of the frontal cortex, as well as reduced size in regions like the caudate nucleus, putamen and hippocampus. The altered regions are invo.
