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WASHINGTON - Science is getting a grip on people’s fears.

As Americans revel in all things scary today for Halloween, scientists say they now know better what’s going on inside our brains when a spook jumps out and scares us. Knowing how fear rules the brain should lead to treatments for a major medical problem: When irrational fears go haywire.

“We’re making a lot of progress,” said University of Michigan psychology professor Stephen Maren. “We’re taking all of what we learned from the basic studies of animals and bringing that into the clinical practices that help people. Things are starting to come together in a very important way.”

About 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A Harvard Medical School study estimated the annual cost to the U.S. economy in 1999 at roughly $42 billion.

Fear is a basic primal emotion that is key to evolutionary survival. It’s one we share with animals. Genetics plays a big role in the development of overwhelming - and needless - fear, psychologists say. But so do traumatic events.

“Fear is a funny thing,” said Ted Abel, a fear researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “One needs enough of it, but not too much of it.”

Armi Rowe, a Connecticut freelance writer and mother, said she used to be “one of those rational types who are usually calm under pressure.” She was someone who would ski the treacherous black diamond trails of snowy mountains. Then one day, in the midst of coping with a couple of serious illnesses in her family, she felt fear closing in on her while driving alone. The crushing pain on her chest felt like a heart attack. She called 911.

“I was literally frozen with fear,” she said. It was an anxiety attack. The first of many.

The first sign she would get would be sweaty palms and then a numbness in the pit of her stomach and queasiness. Eventually it escalated until she felt as if she were being attacked by a wild animal.

“There’s a trick to panic attack,” said David Carbonell, a Chicago psychologist specializing in treating anxiety disorders. “You’re experiencing this powerful discomfort but you’re getting tricked into treating it like danger.”

These days, thanks to counseling, self-study, calming exercises and introspection, Rowe knows how to stop or at least minimize those attacks early on.

Scientists figure they can improve that fear-dampening process by learning how fear runs through the brain and body.

The fear hot spot is the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the deep brain.

The amygdala isn’t responsible for all of people’s fear response, but it’s like the burglar alarm that connects to everything else, said New York University psychology and neural science professor Elizabeth Phelps.

Emory University psychiatry and psychology professor Michael Davis found that a certain chemical reaction in the amygdala is crucial in the way mice and people learn to overcome fear. When that reaction is deactivated in mice, they never learn to counter their fears.

Scientists found D-cycloserine, a drug already used to fight hard-to-treat tuberculosis, strengthens that good chemical reaction in mice. Working in combination with therapy, it seems to do the same in people. It was first shown effective with people who have a fear of heights. It also worked in tests with other types of fear, and it’s now being studied in survivors of the World Trade Center attacks and the Iraq war.

The work is promising, but Michigan’s Maren cautions that therapy will still be needed: “You’re not going to be able to take a pill and make these things go away.”

That’s because “fear is the most powerful emotion,” said University of California Los Angeles psychology professor Michael Fanselow.

And people recognize fear in other humans faster than other emotions, according to a new study being published next month. Research appearing in the journal Emotion involved volunteers who were bombarded with pictures of faces showing fear, happiness and no expression. They quickly recognized and reacted to the faces of fear - even when they were turned upside down.

“We think we have some built-in shortcuts of the brain that serve the role that helps us detect anything that could be threatening,” said study author Vanderbilt University psychology professor David Zald.

Other studies have shown that just by being very afraid, other bodily functions change. One study found that very frightened people can withstand more pain than those not experiencing fear. Another found that experiencing fear or merely perceiving it in others improved people’s attention and brain skills.

To help overcome overwhelming fear, psychologist Carbonell, author of the “Panic Attacks Workbook,” has his patients distinguish between a real threat and a perceived one. They practice fear attacks and their response to them. He even has them fill out questionnaires in the middle of a fear attack, which changes their thinking and reduces their anxiety.

That’s important because the normal response for dealing with a real threat is either flee or fight, Carbonell said. But if the threat is not real, the best way to deal with fear is just the opposite: “Wait it out and chill.”

College basketball

Senderoff, at center of probe into improper calls to recruits, resigns: Indiana assistant coach Rob Senderoff, still the focus of an investigation into improper telephone calls to recruits, resigned Tuesday.

So far, the investigation has cost the Hoosiers one scholarship and cost coach Kelvin Sampson - a former Washington State coach - a $500,000 pay raise. The NCAA is conducting its own investigation, which could lead to further sanctions.

“Rob Senderoff has decided it is in his and Indiana University’s best interests that he voluntarily resign,” the school said in a statement.

Senderoff, a former assistant at Kent State, was hired by Sampson in May 2006, the same month the NCAA sanctioned Sampson for making 577 impermissible phone calls between 2000 and 2004 while he was the coach at Oklahoma.

Sampson was barred from calling recruits or making off-campus recruiting trips for one year, but on Oct. 14, less than five months after those sanctions expired, Indiana announced its compliance office had discovered new violations that occurred while the original sanctions were still in effect.

Nevada player who was beaten is kicked off team: Nevada sophomore forward Tyrone Hanson, who was beaten unconscious and robbed Sunday at a Halloween party where three people were shot to death, has been kicked off the team because he had been told not to go out that night, Wolf Pack coach Mark Fox said.

Fox is a former Washington assistant coach.

Tennessee center is hospitalized: Tennessee sophomore center Wayne Chism was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious when teammate Jordan Howell drove toward the basket and struck him in the head with an elbow during practice.

Chism was alert after being taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Soccer

Brazil hosted Cup in 1950: The country with the most World Cup titles will finally get another chance to win one at home. Brazil, which has earned a record five World Cups, was awarded the right to host 2014 tournament by FIFA’s executive committee.

Brazil hosted the event in 1950, losing to Uruguay in the final.

The 2011 Women’s World Cup was awarded to Germany, which beat out Canada.

College athletics

Athletes outperform nonathletes in federal graduation rates: Nearly every main demographic group of top college athletes exceeds the graduation rate for its student-body counterparts.

According to federal graduation rates released by the NCAA, 63 percent of Division I athletes who started college as freshmen in 2000 graduated in six years. That beats the graduation rate for all students at Division I schools by 1 percent and matched last year’s percentage.

White athletes had a 67 percent graduation rate, compared with 64 percent for white students overall. Black athletes outperformed their student-body counterparts 53 percent to 46 percent.

Golf

High stakes in finale: As the final tournament of the PGA Tour season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., has a serious tone. The final top 125 players on the money list will earn Tour cards with full 2008 exemptions. The next 25 get Tour membership but are not exempt and get into tournaments on a space-available basis.

Jeff Gove of Seattle is 153rd on the money list, four places above Michael Putnam of University Place.

Woods denies rumors: Tiger Woods, the world’s top-ranked player, said rumors about him leaving swing coach Hank Haney are untrue.

“I have not split with Hank Haney, my friend and swing coach,” Woods said in his monthly newsletter. “He’s spent more time at home helping his wife deal with health issues, which is the way it should be.”

Olympics

Boxers Russell, Williams qualify for Beijing: Bantamweight Gary Russell Jr. and featherweight Raynell Williams qualified for next year’s Beijing Games with convincing victories and built on the U.S. team’s momentum at the world championships in Chicago.

That’s not the ticket: Ticket sales for the Beijing Games were suspended after overwhelming demand crashed the computer-ticketing system, organizers said. When tickets went on sale in China on a first-come, first-served basis, there was an overload.

Seattle Times news services

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon threw his support behind a Marysville location for a proposed University of Washington branch campus last week. He said the nearly 400-acre site offers the best prospects for a four-year polytechnic college comparable in size to the state’s other regional universities.

Reardon told a meeting of the Marysville Rotary that if the state is serious about funding a new college with dormitories, lower- and upper-division classes, and room to expand to 10,000 students by 2020, “I give the edge to Marysville.”

Three other sites, two in Everett and one in Lake Stevens, also are being evaluated by a site-selection team in conjunction with the University of Washington and Gov. Christine Gregoire’s office. A recommended site and an academic plan are due to the Legislature Nov. 15.

Reardon’s remarks surprised those in the audience and fellow lawmakers who are awaiting the state’s report, which will include a detailed analysis of each site. The Legislature ultimately will determine the location and how fast the college should grow.

“It’s important that we see the study and be able to ask questions before we support a specific site,” said state Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett.

Ron Young, a Marysville businessman who attended the Rotary luncheon, said he was surprised that the county executive publicly backed one site over contenders in other parts of the county.

“He wasn’t trying to be inclusive,” Young said.

Reardon said he would love to see the new college built in Everett because of its central location, existing infrastructure and opportunities for students to partner with local employers.

But he said the 31-acre Everett Station site would limit the size and scope of a new college. And the 90-acre Riverside site in Everett must first be cleaned of pollutants. That could delay and diminish the state’s commitment to funding and building the new college, he said.

The Legislature only recently authorized lower-division courses at the two UW branch campuses in Bothell and Tacoma. Each currently enrolls about 2,000 students. Reardon said the site selected by the state may signal its level of commitment to the new college.

“If the state has a halfhearted commitment, maybe only a couple of thousand students after 10 years, the capital investment would also be low. In that case, the best site is Everett Station,” he said.

In an interview after his Rotary speech, Reardon said he was sharing his views now out of concern that the state funding won’t match the Legislature’s directive to create a four-year college to meet the needs of an estimated 11,000 students in the north Snohomish, Skagit and Island county region who will be shut out of existing state colleges by 2025 as the population grows and the state higher-education system reaches capacity.

While Reardon voiced skepticism about the Everett sites as locations for the type of college he believes the area needs, the city has garnered some high-profile endorsements. Boeing in September said it supported an Everett location for the college because the city has the most developed infrastructure and the most “community assets.”

Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said an internal committee evaluated each of the four site finalists, including the environmental cleanup that would be needed at the two Everett locations, and concluded that the Everett sites would be most cost-effective.

Eighty other businesses, including Fluke and Kimberly Clark, also endorsed an Everett location.

In another sign of the increasing politicization of the site-selection process, a land-use consultant resigned from the state site-analysis team after lobbyists for Marysville accused him of having a conflict of interest.

Reid Shockley received $37,500 through October from the state - which is spending $1 million to evaluate the sites - to analyze the zoning and permitting requirements of the three competing jurisdictions, Marysville, Everett and Lake Stevens. He also organized a series of public town-hall meetings.

Shockley is president of the Everett firm Shockey/Brent, which specializes in environmental and land-use planning. He has worked as a consultant for 27 years and was previously Everett’s planning director.

But critics point to his close ties to Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson. Shockey co-chaired the mayor’s re-election campaign in 2005, and over the past four years contributed $1,450 to his campaigns, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Shockey also led the city’s Vision 2025 effort that recommended strengthening Everett’s educational options by securing a four-year college. He said, however, that he has had no conversations with Stephenson related to the college-siting process.

“How can he remain unbiased as he screens and evaluates sites?” asked Charla Neuman, lobbyist for Strategies 360, a Seattle marketing-strategy firm representing Marysville.

Shockey resigned from the site-selection team last week, saying he didn’t want to distract from the efforts to locate a university in the region. He noted that he has worked as a land-use consultant to Lake Stevens and Marysville in the past and contributed $100 to Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall’s re-election campaign in 2006.

A spokeswoman for the governor’s office said Shockey analyzed potential land-use restrictions but that his work was objective and technical.

“He doesn’t get a vote. He doesn’t give an opinion,” said Deb Merle, higher-education adviser to Gregoire. “He conducted himself entirely honorably.”

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com

Editor’s note: The Travel Troubleshooter is a new Seattle Times online feature by syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott.

Question: I know this is very last minute, but any assistance you can give would be of great help. My mother is booked on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of Hawaii. She’s scheduled to fly from Philadelphia to Honolulu with her sister and niece tomorrow.

Today we found out that her sister and niece will be flying on an entirely different airline. My mother is on United Airlines and her sister and caretaker are on Delta Air Lines.

My mother is 74 years old and has glaucoma and other medical problems, which require her to travel with someone. Although she has a separate room from her sister, the booking arrangements were done together so they could travel together.

My mother is extremely upset. She’s in tears and literally has gotten sick over this news. I have tried to talk with Norwegian, but they told me to deal with my travel agency. When I called my agency, they told me there is nothing they could do to help. Is there anything you can do?

Lawrence Dean Parrish, Sewell, N.J.

Answer: If your travel agent booked your cruise and air together, then your mother, aunt and cousin should have been on the same flight.

When your agent made the reservation, a “travel with” flag that notifies the airline you’re traveling together should have been raised in the reservations system. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll be offered the same itinerary when a flight changes, but it’s the only way to let your airline and cruise line know that the reservations are linked.

Without the flag, it’s impossible to tell that you’re traveling together. So when a flight schedule changes, your entire itinerary can come unraveled.

I checked with NCL, and it appears the flag wasn’t on your reservation. The cruise line turned you over to your travel agent, whose responsibility it was to make the notation. But your agent appears to have been either unwilling or unable to help fix your mother’s flights.

I think hiring a travel agent for this cruise was a great idea. You didn’t want to try to book this important vacation by yourself. I just finished mediating a heartbreaking case involving someone who self-booked a complex itinerary and was basically left stranded at the airport after one of his flights arrived late. A competent agent wouldn’t have let that happen.

There are a lot of terrific travel agents, but none of them are perfect. When mistakes are made, you should expect the agent, who took a sizable commission from this cruise booking, to step up and do whatever it takes to make things right. Otherwise, why bother hiring a professional?

I’m a little puzzled by your mother’s choice of vacation. If she has serious health problems, why would she want to fly nearly 5,000 miles and then get on a cruise ship? She might have been just as happy - and perhaps happier - to take a cruise from Philadelphia. NCL offers one to Bermuda that might have been perfect.

I would consider having a little chat with your travel agent. What happened to her might have been an honest misunderstanding, or you might be working with the wrong agent. I think it’s important to figure that out before buying your next cruise.

After I contacted NCL, it did its best to change your mother’s flight. It managed to fix her return trip, but unfortunately, she still had to fly to the islands on her own.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org

Follow a few safety tips to keep tonight’s Halloween activities safe for all the little goblins and ghosts. Suggestions, from the Seattle Police Department, include taking a flashlight and knowing the route. Remind children not to enter strangers’ homes or cars and that they are not to eat any food items until they have been inspected. Throw away any candy that has been opened.

Also remind trick-or-treaters about using crosswalks, not crossing the street from between parked cars and how drivers have a difficult time seeing people in the dark. Watch for open flames of jack-o’-lanterns that can catch costumes and long wigs on fire. And finally, make sure that fake knives, swords and guns are made from flexible materials to avoid accidental injury or having them mistaken for the real thing.

Civic calendar

Top of the town welcome

Today: Mayor Greg Nickels kicks off the Mayors Climate Summit (Thursday-Friday) by raising a “Seattle Climate Action Now” flag atop the Space Needle at 10:30 a.m. Former President Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will address the conference of more than 100 mayors from across the country.

People and pets discussion

Thursday: First of several open discussions led by the Seattle Humane Society on “how best to serve the animals and people who love them” at 6 p.m., Kent Regional Library, 212 Second Ave. N., Kent. For a schedule of meetings on the future of animal welfare in the community, check www.seattlehumane.org

Clinton book tour

Thursday: Former President Clinton will autograph copies of his new book, “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World,” at 8 p.m. at the University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., Seattle. Signing guidelines will be enforced, according to the store. For complete details, check its Web site: www.ubookstore.com.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times lead news assistant Lynne Berry. To submit an item, e-mail herenow@seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.

Oct. 31, 1911: This date marks the completion of the second phase of the Denny Regrade, one of several projects designed to level several of Seattle’s steepest hills. The massive regrade incorporated an area from Second Avenue to Fifth Avenue and from Pike Street to Cedar Street. It took eight years to sluice more than 5 million cubic yards of dirt, mostly into Elliott Bay. The greatest excavations of Denny Hill were along Blanchard Street, which was lowered 107 feet at Fourth Avenue and 93 feet at Fifth Avenue.

Source: Historylink.org

FORT WORTH, Texas - Quick: When was the last time you heard the word “rain,” and you thought: “Fun!”

Think back to your childhood: Rain was about puddles, splashing and turning the world into your personal water park.

This season, it’s raining rain boots, and they’re a fabulous way to get a new perspective on precipitation. Rain boots are comfy, practical, and, best of all, they’re also now cute in colors that pack a punch. Rain boots have gone way beyond the traditional dark green Wellingtons favored by the British upper crust. Choose a cowboy boot, a riding boot, a flat heel or a mid-calf length. Pick a pattern ranging from floral fantasies and Pucci prints to prancing puppies or edgy tattoos.

And they aren’t just for rain anymore. Tuck your sweat pants into rain boots on dewy mornings while you’re checking on your garden. Slip into them for a Saturday-morning grocery run. And if the day’s plans call for outdoor activity and the heavens are opening up, well, just enjoy the muddiness of it all, and yes, have some fun.

For one, it took 20 years playing the game; for another, just a few weeks. And in the end, they both finally got their first win.

Eli Prkut, of Federal Way, and Mark Frerichs, of Tukwila, both correctly picked the outcomes of 18 of 20 football games to tie for the Week 8 winner of The Seattle Times’ Guest Guesser contest.

For Prkut, it was a long time coming, in that he’s played for 20 years. Prkut said he had picked a perfect card for Week 1, but didn’t get it entered in time.

Each will get $100 and earn a berth in championship week, when only weekly winners play for the grand prize, a trip for two to the Super Bowl.

There were 8,167 entries in Week 8. The prize for a perfect card, which rises $500 each week until a perfect card turns up, moves to $2,500.

To play Week 9 in the 10-week contest, mail in the adjacent coupon, or go online to play at seattletimes.com/guestguesser

ENUMCLAW - Fire, smoke and water damaged seven condos at the Crystal Mountain ski resort.

A Pierce County fire district chief, C.J. Hutins, says the Monday night fire apparently was accidental.

There was no one in the four-story building when the fire broke out on the first floor.

Washington State coach Bill Doba joked Monday that he “really felt good” after the Cougars’ 27-7 upset of UCLA until Sunday afternoon when he sat down to watch film of upcoming opponent California.

The talented Bears (5-3, 2-3 Pac-10) hope to halt a three-game Pac-10 skid in the televised Saturday night game.

Doba, who knows something about losing streaks because WSU snapped a four-game skid by beating the Bruins, said the Bears’ season now can “go either way.”

“They can either really get upset and turn it around and come out like gangbusters and come after you, or else they can start bickering,” he said. “It could help them or could hurt them.”

Cal lost at Arizona State 31-20 Saturday night and had been upset by UCLA 30-21 the previous Saturday.

“Quite honestly, UCLA beating Cal the week before was probably the best thing that happened to us,” Doba said.

UCLA arrived in Pullman banged up and ripe for a letdown loss. In the first half, the Bruins’ top running back (Kahlil Bell) and receiver (Brandon Breazell) were knocked out of the game.

Doba called the triumph “a lot of fun. We needed it. Our kids were very, very excited about it afterwards.”

When a reporter asked Doba whether the win might have reduced speculation about his job security, he replied: “We’re not going to talk about that, OK? Let’s talk about Cal and the rest of it. We’ve got a long way to go yet.”

Notes

• The Nov. 3 WSU home game against Stanford has been picked up for television by Fox Sports Northwest. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m.

• Backup DE Mike Graise (ankle) is considered doubtful for Saturday’s game. Doba said starting C Kenny Alfred (concussion symptoms) will be tested this week. Doba is optimistic that Alfred will be able to play against Cal.

• Two other players with concussions who have missed games - starting SS Alfonso Jackson and backup RB Chris Ivory - will be tested this week to see if they can resume playing.

• A statistical oddity mentioned by Doba is that the Cougars had more net yardage (average of 42.7) on punts against UCLA than actual yardage (average 42.0). Reason? The only punt returned was for a 2-yard loss.

• Doba noted that coverage has improved since the Cougars went to rugby-style punting by Reid Forrest. He said teams aren’t rushing the punter as much as they did. As a result, WSU is sending four gunners downfield, and the extra time Forrest takes in his rugby-style punting means the Cougars get about 5 yards closer to the return man.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com

KIRKLAND - The business of football returned in full swing to Seahawks headquarters Monday with all of the players back from the bye week off.

The Seahawks don’t normally practice Mondays, lifting weights and doing conditioning on days after games. But because there was no game to play Sunday, they went through about a 70-minute workout.

“This is kind of a little bit of a bonus day, we’re calling it,” coach Mike Holmgren said afterward.

Not all the players practiced, though, with eight sitting out.

Among those not practicing was quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, whose strained oblique muscle kept him out per advice to Holmgren from the team medical staff. Wide receiver Deion Branch, fullback Leonard Weaver, defensive end Darryl Tapp, right tackle Sean Locklear and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard, all starters, also missed practice.

“I wanted them to practice,” Holmgren said, “and I think we’re being a little careful. But I’ll go with what they [trainers and doctors] tell me, but they’re all practicing Wednesday.”

Hasselbeck stood and watched while backup Seneca Wallace and No. 3 quarterback Charlie Frye took snaps, Wallace working with the starters. Hasselbeck was one of what he said was a group of six Seahawks forced to stay in town for injury treatment, causing him to scrap a planned vacation.

“I haven’t tested it too much, but I think I’ll be fine,” Hasselbeck said of his oblique.

Tapp has a broken right hand suffered in the Seahawks’ last game, Oct. 21, and had surgery. He is expected to play Sunday at Cleveland. Tight end Marcus Pollard, who also missed practice, had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee last week in Seattle and is expected to miss the game.

Branch still has a sore foot but is expected to return to practice this week after missing the last game, Holmgren said. But wide receiver D.J. Hackett took part in practice Monday and will likely play in his first game since Week 1.

“If we can get Deion back, if we can get D.J. back, that would be huge because those guys have done a lot of work with us and they kind of fit in nicely,” Hasselbeck said. “A lot of these plays are designed for them. We have a lot of experience together.”

Locklear said a St. Louis Rams player fell on one of his ankles, so he’ll see how he feels by Wednesday when the team starts preparing for the Browns. Monday’s practice was more about self-evaluation.

“We tried to really focus in on what we can do better, more so than game planning and that kind of thing,” Hasselbeck said.

Defensive tackle Craig Terrill and offensive lineman Ray Willis also missed practice. Bernard and Terrill are expected back this week. Willis has a knee injury that will keep him out for perhaps another few weeks.

Boston’s finest

Hasselbeck, a native New Englander, was happy to see his Boston Red Sox win the World Series. He’s also enjoyed his alma mater, Boston College, going 8-0 this season and currently being ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings.

Hasselbeck was asked about the hot sports scene in New England - the NFL’s Patriots are also undefeated.

“They’re all very happy right now. I don’t blame them,” Hasselbeck said. “It’s wicked good right now.”

Note

• Holmgren came back with a bit of a tan from his bye-week time in Arizona. He admitted he “didn’t work very hard” and spent time taking walks, reading and riding his motorcycle.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com