VIENNA: An Austrian university is on
the hunt for girls who recoil at the sight of spiders for research into how fear
affects the processes of the brain.
"The researchers are looking for
girls aged between 8-13 years who are very fearful of spiders and/or who feel
sick at the sight of them," the University of Graz said on its
website.
The girls will be shown pictures of the eight-legged
crawlers and their brainwaves will be registered. They will also undergo free
fear therapy with specialists. The researchers hope the results will help them
develop their phobia treatments.
"Spiders provoke revulsion for many
people and even set off fearful panic. Girls in particular are frequently
affected," the university said.
Most spiders are solitary animals.
But some are social animals, living in communal webs throughout their lives,
cooperating in nest construction and prey hunting. Other species are subsocial,
where individual spiders come together and cooperate at certain stages of their
lives.
