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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 28, 2025

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Published on: September 12, 2014

Human Responses to Visually Evoked Threat.

Melis Yilmaz Balban¹, Erin Cafaro¹, Lauren Saue-Fletcher¹

¹Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

Current Biology : CB

|November 26, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Virtual reality (VR) enables realistic threat studies. High anxiety increases visual scanning, linked to physiological arousal, revealing insula and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) roles in threat detection and stress adjustment.

Keywords:

anxiety eye movement human fear insula virtual reality

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Virtual Reality

Background:

Threat perception is crucial for survival.
Understanding the human threat response is vital.
Existing lab paradigms lack realism.

Purpose of the Study:

To establish a virtual reality (VR) platform for studying threat responses.
To simultaneously measure behavior, physiology, and neural activity.
To investigate differences in threat response between anxious and healthy individuals.

Main Methods:

Developed an immersive VR platform.
Used chronically implanted electrodes for intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG).
Measured behavioral, physiological, and neural data during threat exposure.

Main Results:

Anxious subjects exhibited increased visual scanning compared to controls.
Visual scanning correlated with physiological arousal in all subjects.
Insula gamma activity positively correlated with arousal; OFC theta activity negatively correlated.

Conclusions:

Eye movements play a key role in threat detection.
Distinct insula and OFC neural dynamics are involved in stress response.
VR offers a powerful tool for studying threat perception and anxiety.