Fight or flight response

The fight-or-flight response (or acute stress response) is a set of physiological changes that occur when an animal is threatened.^[1] The changes include increased heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure.

This response was first described by W.B Cannon.^[2] He found that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system. This leads to changes such as those mentioned above. The changes prepare the animal for fighting or fleeing.^[3] This response is the first stage of a general adaptation that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms.^[4]

1. ↑ Cannon, Walter (1932). Wisdom of the body. United States: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393002055.
2. ↑ Cannon W.B. (1929). Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
3. ↑ Jansen, A; et al. (1995). "Central command neurons of the sympathetic nervous system: basis of the fight-or-flight response". Science. 5236 (270).
4. ↑ Gozhenko, A.; et al. (2009). Pathology: theory. Medical Student's Library. Radom. pp. 270–275.