Fight-or-flight response
The fight-or-flight response (also called the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response, hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon. Some references say he first described the response in 1914 in The American Journal of Physiology. Others in the 1915 edition of Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage. Other sources say that he first used the term in 1929 or in the 1932 edition of the same book. The issue needs further research.
His theory states that animals react to threat displays with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing. This response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates biological stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms.
Physiology
Catecholamine hormones, such as adrenaline or noradrenaline, facilitate immediate physical reactions associated with a preparation for violent muscular action. These include the following:
- Acceleration of heart (Arrhythmia) and lung (Tachypnea) action
- Paling or flushing, or alternating between both
- Inhibition of stomach and small intestine (upper-intestinal) action to the point where digestion slows down or stops
- General effect on the sphincters of the body
- Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body
- Metabolism of nutrients (particularly adipose tissue (fat) and glucose) for muscular action
- Vasodilation (dilation) of blood vessels for muscles
- Inhibition of the lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation
- Dilation of pupils (mydriasis)
- Relaxation of the urinary bladder
- Inhibition of erection
- Auditory exclusion (loss of hearing)
- Tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision)
- Disinhibition of spinal reflexes
- Shaking
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