Phobia about holes is not officially recognized but U.K. scientists look into it
Arnold Wilkins
Arnold Wilkins  left  and Geoff Cole  right  hope to show that an aversion to objects such as lotus seedpods can be seen as a phobia with an evolutionary basis. (Roger Deeble)
During an introductory psychology course at Britain’s University of Essex in 2009   Arnold Wilkins  asked  his  class to participate in a quick experiment.  Wilkins  projected two images on a wall and asked students to write down whether they found either of them disturbing. One was a photograph of a woody landscape. The other was a close-up of a lotus-flower seedpod — a flat-faced pod pocked with small holes. Most of the students were unmoved  but one  freshman An Le  recalls being both transfixed and revolted by the lotus image. “It felt like I was in shock ”  he  says.
 Le  is far from alone in  his  response. Thousands of people claim to suffer trypophobia  a term derived from the Greek “trypo ” which means punching  drilling or boring holes. It refers to an irrational fear of clusters of small holes  such as beehives  ant holes and even bubbles in a pancake on the griddle or air pockets in a chocolate bar.
In a separate experiment  the pair showed people slide shows of various images and monitored their brain activity via functional MRI scans. “You get an abnormally high response with the trypophobic images ”  Wilkins  says. “It’s like these poisonous things are warning us that they’re poisonous ” Cole says. Trypophobic patterns  such as those that can be found on the skin of snakes and spiders  are indicative of poisonous predators  and some people are especially primed to respond to that.  Wilkins  and Cole hope to soon figure out why.
 Wilkins  and Cole concede that it’s too soon to draw major conclusions from their findings. For now  they are outlining a desensitization regimen whereby trypophobes gradually expose themselves to more disturbing imagery as a way to overcome their anxieties   Wilkins  says. “But it probably won’t be possible to remove the uncomfortableness altogether.”
[TGT]left  and Geoff Cole  right  hope to show that an aversion to objects such as lotus seedpods can be seen as a phobia with an evolutionary basis. (Roger Deeble)
During an introductory psychology course at Britain’s University of Essex in 2009   [TGT]  asked  his  class to participate in a quick experiment.  [TGT]projected two images on a wall and asked students to write down whether they found either of them disturbing. One was a photograph of a woody landscape. The other was a close-up of a lotus-flower seedpod — a flat-faced pod pocked with small holes. Most of the students were unmoved  but one  freshman An Le  recalls being both transfixed and revolted by the lotus image. “It felt like I was in shock ”  he  says.
 Le  is far from alone in  his  response. Thousands of people claim to suffer trypophobia  a term derived from the Greek “trypo ” which means punching  drilling or boring holes. It refers to an irrational fear of clusters of small holes  such as beehives  ant holes and even bubbles in a pancake on the griddle or air pockets in a chocolate bar.
In a separate experiment  the pair showed people slide shows of various images and monitored their brain activity via functional MRI scans. “You get an abnormally high response with the trypophobic images ”  Wilkins  says. “It’s like these poisonous things are warning us that they’re poisonous ” Cole says. Trypophobic patterns  such as those that can be found on the skin of snakes and spiders  are indicative of poisonous predators  and some people are especially primed to respond to that.  Wilkins  and Cole hope to soon figure out why.
 Wilkins  and Cole concede that it’s too soon to draw major conclusions from their findings. For now  they are outlining a desensitization regimen whereby trypophobes gradually expose themselves to more disturbing imagery as a way to overcome their anxieties   Wilkins  says. “But it probably won’t be possible to remove the uncomfortableness altogether.”