I’ve noticed that when I’m really cold or sometimes when I’m scared, I get these tiny bumps all over my skin, which I think are called goosebumps. Why does this happen? What’s the biological reason behind it?
In: Biology
The posterior hypothalamus is the region that is invovlved in thermoregulation- it warms the body when it is cold by shivering, shunting blood to the core and raising body hair. All of these reactions (plus sweating, modulated by anterior hypothalamus that cools the body) are advantageous when you are being attacked by predators, by making you more jumpy, less prone to bleeding, cutting and making you slippery- so those reactions from the same regions of the hypothalamus are also part of the fear response.
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