Scientific Inventions in the 20th Century - Essay Example

Our body is made in a way that we must react to the situation that causes fear. The way that we are affected by the frightening situation can be fatal at times. Scientific inventions in the 20th century have made it possible that these effects will not haunt us for long. Scientists have used the available resources to determine how fear can be managed and its impacts reduced or eliminated. This has been made possible through two options: medication or conditioning. The question is how long can the fear be extinguished? How efficient and effective is the method of extinguishing? What are the side effects that are associated with the implementation of such practices? Is there a possibility that fear will return? How can the fear that has returned be managed?

In 2009, scientists Monfils et al. (2009) conducted research using rats to help prevent a return of fear. The research aim was to determine a given window to which a return of fear could be prevented through post-retrieval extinction. Post-retrieval extinction is whereby additional activities are put in place after the removal of fear to see that it doesn’t come back. The research entailed the rats being fear-induced, then exposed to retrieval trial. The duration between the induction and retrieval was 24 hours. After a period of 6 to 10 minutes, the rats were taken to training to see them forget their fear. One month after reconsolidation showed that there was no un-induced recovery of fear. The control experiment group, however, recovered the fear memory. This research, therefore, showed that fear reconsolidation was necessary to see the fear memory permanently removed. How does this apply to humans?

A study by Schiller et al. (2010) was conducted 2010, to determine if the results found among the rats could be used in humans. This research, therefore, used humans as the specimen instead of rats yet tested the same mechanism. Fear was induced in humans that were grouped in pairs using coloring. The process that was done on the rats was repeated on them and the results appeared the same. One of the groups witnessed a reintroduction of the fear memory within a timeframe of six hours. The results were that there was no recovery of fears that were learned if it is reconsolidated in time. A test done one year later showed that there was no recovery of fear among the teams that went through fear reconsolidation. The team that didn’t go through the reconsolidation process recovered fear memory at a high rate even after a time frame of a year.

The research findings above show that fear can be regulated through practice. As Mark Twain once said; “Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain”. This shows that facing fear and getting fond of it is the best way to manage it. This new method of fear management can enable us to prevent it from recovering or reoccurring.