Fear Responses and Postural Symptoms
How Body Language Observations of Fear Inform Chronic Conditions
I was watching a video about body language, and the presenter was discussing observable signs of fear in people, and said something really interesting, which explains some of the features we have previously seen in the Startle Reflex in humans [acute] and in the classical "Parkinson's Stance" bent over posture [chronic].
The presenter said that postures of fear are designed to protect arteries. For example, the reflexive raising of the shoulders is to protect the Carotid arteries. The pulling of the arms tight into the body is to protect the Brachial artery. The wide open mouth we saw so clearly in the Startle Response, and is also a key characteristic of Parkinson's, helps to protect the Carotid arteries from the front [try closing and opening your mouth wide repeatedly in the mirror and see what happens to the shape of the neck]. The bent over, crouched position is so that the bones of the rib cage provide more cover for the abdominal aorta.
To me, this provides further support to the idea that the postural feature of Parkinson's and related conditions is a manifestation of being stuck in a fear reflex.
For example, it might explain the pattern of hyper-tense and flaccid muscles that Dr Farias has observed in various forms of dystonia (the figure below is from his book, the red dots are where the hyper-tense muscles are to be found, and the blue dots where the flaccid muscles are).
These muscle patterns may represent the configurations needed to pull the body quickly into the defensive, armoured positions.
In the chronic case, these patterns are often being triggered by reminders of past stressful experiences or events, rather than necessarily due to the present situation per se:
I wonder how much "shaking off stress" can help - as animals shake after an injury, but humans do not. Qi Gong practice has shaking exercises. Have you found this to help Gary?
Truly astounding research you keep putting out Gary - thank you.
This makes very good sense to me. I'm remembering a friend with a massive amount of trauma in childhood. Her face always looked, underneath everything else, stuck in fear. A bit frozen, raised eyebrows, eyes a bit too open.