Antsy About Spiders? Stanford May Want You for Study Project

Does the sight of a spider paralyze you with fear?

If so, Stanford University wants you for a study on how fear affects brain chemistry--and they may be able to rid you of your terror in the bargain.

Stanford researchers need 20 to 30 volunteers who are frozen with fear at the very thought of a spider.

“It should be handicapping,” said Dr. K. Gunnar Gotestam, a visiting professor from Norway who heads the study. “Some of these people don’t dare go into specific rooms, don’t dare to go out--they are really incapacitated by their phobias.”

The study wants to confirm a theory proposed by Gotestam and psychologist Tom Merluzzi--that the brain reacts to fear by releasing natural tranquilizers called endorphins. Gotestam thinks that therapy may work by triggering a release of more endorphins.

To test the theory, researchers will give some volunteers a drug to block the endorphins, then try to determine if those individuals take longer than those without the blockers to get used to spiders.

To help the volunteers get over their fear, they will be exposed to spiders over a period of hours. The therapy starts with contemplating a spider hidden in a closed container and continues until participants can allow a spider to crawl on them.