Kevin Hilbert and his team at Humboldt University Berlin note that phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder, affecting more than 12% of the population.
Researchers have found that people with phobia show an increase in the thickness of some regions of the cerebral cortex, as well as a decrease in the size of areas such as the caudate, putamen, and hippocampal nuclei. These changes are associated with processes responsible for the emotional processing of movement, disgust, and fear.
Interestingly, such changes in brain structure were not found in individuals under the age of 21, suggesting that they occur in adulthood. These findings were published in the journal AJP in Advance and may reflect a more persistent form of anxiety disorder experienced by adults.
Source: Ferra
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