Frynta, D. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2026

Subjective and psychophysiological response to pictures of ancestral and modern threats: not all evolutionary threats are alike

After encountering a potentially dangerous stimulus, the human body and mind might react with a cascade of physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses to minimize impending harm. However, whether this system can be activated by modern (ontogenetic) threats to the same extent as by ancestral (evolutionary) threats remains uncertain, since the existing results are ambiguous. In this study, we aimed to compare the skin resistance (SR) response to ancestral and modern threats; the focal categories were venomous snakes, heights, airborne diseases, and firearms. We collected recordings of 119 participants, about 30 per threat category, supplemented by participants rating of the stimuli according to elicited fear. Results showed that participants reacted (SR change) with higher probability to all experimental categories than to control stimuli, with the most frequent reactions to photos simulating the threat of heights, followed by snakes, firearms, and airborne diseases. The largest amplitudes, indicating response intensity, were observed for heights but also for venomous snakes. Further examination showed that higher subjective fear corresponded to an increased probability of SR change. Although the results suggest a slight advantage for ancestral threats, responses to the threat of heights differed in several respects from responses to snakes, demonstrating that ancestrality-based categorisation cannot capture all aspects of the response. Moreover, both ancestral and modern threats can evoke similar electrodermal responses, depending on subjective stimulus salience and/or threat relevance.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2025

From ancient fears to airborne threats: fMRI insights into neural fear responses

Threat perception is a fundamental aspect of human cognition, shaped by evolutionary pressures and modern environmental demands. While ancestral threats (e.g., snakes) have been shown to elicit stronger neural responses than modern threats (e.g., guns), less is known about how the brain processes airborne threats, such as depictions of individuals wearing face masks. This fMRI study investigates neural responses to ancestral, modern, and airborne threats to identify shared and distinct activation patterns. Sixty participants viewed visual stimuli from the three categories while undergoing fMRI scanning. Results showed heightened activation in the fear-processing network for all affective stimuli. In addition, activation of the ventral attention network was found for the ancestral threats. Modern threats elicited less intense responses, primarily engaging cortical regions associated with context-specific analysis. Notably, airborne threats elicited neural responses of similar intensity to ancestral threats but activated cortical regions overlapping with those for modern threats. This dual pattern highlights the brains capacity to integrate evolutionary biases with socially constructed threat awareness. These findings underscore the importance of recognizing airborne threats as a unique category of threat processing, with implications for public health and mental well-being.

neuroscience↗