VCE · Psychology · Mental Health & Wellbeinglive from the app
Biological Contributors to Phobia
GABA dysfunction leaves the brain's brake faulty, so fear responses escalate unchecked. Long-term potentiation then makes the fear pathway stronger every time it fires — the neural version of wearing a groove.
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psychology · mental health & wellbeing · biological contributors to phobiadrag it · it is yours
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Mental health isn't a switch between well and unwell — it's a position on a line that moves. What moves it is biological, psychological and social at once.
GABA dysfunction removes inhibition on fear circuits while long-term potentiation strengthens neural pathways through repeated activation, embedding phobic responses biologically.
what examiners catch — Students confuse correlation with causation or fail to link GABA dysfunction specifically to reduced inhibition rather than increased fear signals.
what you leave with
four things, not forty.
GABA dysfunction: insufficient inhibition of fear response
Overactive stress response and sympathetic arousal
LTP strengthens the fear association with each activation
Some evidence of genetic predisposition
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this conceptbiological contributors to phobiaGABA dysfunction removes inhibition on fear circuits while long-term potentiation strengthens neural pathways through repeated activation, embedding phobic responses biologically.
sits under itglutamate and gababecause GABA dysfunction IS the biological contributor — neuroscience cashes in
built on itspecific phobia through a biopsychosocial lensbecause the bio third
the rest of mental health & wellbeing
12 more, same treatment.
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