Identifying PTSD: Light Shed On Brain's Response To Distress, Unexpected Events

I wonder if the same holds true for portfolio losses? If so, then how do we get people to expect, or at least realize, that asset prices do take large price swings.

Identifying PTSD: Light Shed On Brain's Response To Distress, Unexpected Events:

"'When the noise is unexpected, the brain's response is larger,' said UAB psychologist David Knight, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study, which is currently in press online and will appear in the January 2010 issue of the journal NeuroImage. 'But when participants are able to predict when they are going to hear the unpleasant static noise, you can see the regions of the brain quiet down so that a smaller emotional response is produced.

'While past studies have looked at this startle phenomenon behaviorally, this is the first look at what is actually happening in these regions of the brain when someone is exposed to an unpleasant, unpredictable event,' Knight said."