Trypophobia is an unrecognized psychological disease in which we feel goosebumps, horror, phobia, fear, nausea, and dizziness when seeing images with many round holes or groups of holes. round, such as honeycombs, lotus bowls, holes in tree trunks, tattoos of holes on the human body…
Researchers believe that this fear may be due to some similarity between holes and images of toxic animals.
Gepff Cole, a psychologist at the University of Essex, said that in one study, he and his colleagues found that 16% of participants showed signs of trypophobia.
To investigate toxic creatures that can cause phobias, Cole and his colleagues analyzed images of blue-finned octopuses, cobras, spiders, etc. The reaction creates the phenomenon of Trypophobics, according to researchers. may be a side effect of an evolutionary adaptation to avoid toxic animals. In his studies, he found that phobias are based on a cortical response related to defense against dangerous images.
“There’s an innate, evolutionary instinct to be alert to things that could harm us,” Cole said.
First appearing in 2005, this syndrome was not initially recognized by medicine as a disease. However, many people said they felt really scared by the holes. Many cases have goosebumps, heart arrhythmia, and even difficulty breathing.
And then through a number of studies, scientists have determined the reason why only some people suffer from this strange syndrome: due to brain overload.
More specifically, according to Paul Hibbard – psychology professor at the University of Essex (UK), images with holes in their texture can be said to be very uncomfortable, making the area responsible for analyzing visual information unable to work effectively.
So to be able to process information, the brain will require more oxygen. However, for some people, requiring too much oxygen will overload the brain, and the body reacts with feelings such as dizziness, nausea… to force these people to stop looking. .
Scientists are currently continuing to research more about the mechanism causing this syndrome. Initially, the reason was determined to be because of the evolutionary process, when the image of a hole gave the same feeling as seeing mold on food.
Feeling uncomfortable when looking at such shaped objects allows us humans to stay away from potentially toxic foods.
If you don’t know if you have Trypophobia or not, check out these images. And, did you know that, while you are sitting here grimacing because of them, there are many young people out there who are crazy about holes?