What causes people to pass out from fear on roller coasters?

Question

What causes people to pass out from fear on roller coasters?

In: 1

Answer 1

This is most often caused due to **vasovagal syncope**.

There are nerves running through your body to control how fast your heart beats and the diameter of your blood vessels. When in danger your body prepares for physical exertion by increasing your heart rate and widening your blood vessels. The increased blood flow from both of those will feed whatever reaction you need to the danger.

But those signals don’t always work properly in combination. If things get messed up such as widening blood vessels too much then blood pressure can drop to the point the brain can’t maintain consciousness.