Understanding how, why, and when that happens is critical to managing the spread of any disease, whether fiction or real.Ĭomputer illustration of a microbial mixture containing bacteria and viruses of different types.įor many diseases, there is a variable fraction of the population which becomes infected but never exhibits significant symptoms. Part of the problem in 28 Weeks Later is that there are seemingly healthy people in the survivor compound carrying the rage virus and transmitting it to other people. That becomes a complicated with the recognition that some people are asymptomatic carriers of a disease. In the early stages, like the days or weeks after people start transforming into ravenous living zombies, we're largely dependent on apparent symptoms to know when someone is infectious. When a new disease emerges, health workers and scientists work diligently to understand how and when it passes from one individual to the next. After all, emotions are all in your brain and your brain is a lump of meat susceptible to manipulation from people or pathogens.

If it ratcheted up the sensitivity of the amygdala, that would be even more effective. In order for the 28 Weeks Later disease to work as shown in the movie, resulting in people with a constant sense of rage, it would need to suppress the prefrontal cortex's ability to manage anger. For instance, patients with lesions in the orbital prefrontal cortex may have trouble managing emotions resulting in higher aggression. Studies have shown that damage to the prefrontal cortex can result in increased anger and aggression. But what if your prefrontal cortex didn't attenuate that response? Otherwise, we might all be at each other's throats all the time. Usually, hopefully, you're not actually in any danger and your higher reasoning mitigates your response. By the time your prefrontal cortex catches up to the action, your heart rate and blood pressure are up and you're ready to run or punch as the occasion demands. The amygdala sets off alarm bells and floods your body with hormones like adrenaline, so that you're ready for a fight. KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images The amygdala (red) is part of the brain's limbic system and plays a key role in processing emotions. The correct responses to those events are as varied as their potential outcomes - injury and death, or warm chocolate chips - but if it's the first kind of event, you need to act fast. A loud noise could be a gunshot, an intruder, or a kid selling cookies at your front door. While your prefrontal cortex is responsible for higher reasoning, working logically through a problem takes time you may not have if your life is in danger. Your brain takes in that information and starts processes to quantify and formulate a response. Let's say you hear a loud noise you weren't expecting. When you're presented with a potentially dangerous stimuli, a couple things happen in your brain.

Scientists have identified the amygdala as the part of the brain responsible for pumping you full of some of your most intense emotions, including anger. Whether your neighbor stole your newspaper again, the dog left a present for you on the kitchen floor, or you've been infected with a novel virus which has taken over your brain, getting angry is an ordinary response. Whether we like to admit it or not, anger is an ordinary part of human life.

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