Roller Coaster

With a record-breaking height of 420-feet and record-breaking speed of 120 mph, Top Thrill Dragster delivers on its promise of thrilling riders this summer at Cedar Point

Roller coasters are well known for being amusement devices, in the sense that a rider of a roller coaster will go through a multitude of different emotions whilst riding, most notably fright and excitement, but will ultimately end up with a feeling of having been thrilled. This thrill and happiness that occurs after completing the experience happens due to the release of Epinephrine (Adrenaline) into the blood, invoked by the Fight or Flight response as the rider is scared by the coaster; and due to the release of Dopamine in the brain that occurs as a result of the brain rewarding the rider for having survived the experience; which is why the more extreme a coaster is, the scarier it is and the more it throws the rider around, the larger the resulting dopamine and adrenaline rush will be, and the more enjoyable the experience will be.

The part of the brain responsible for the release of Epinephrine is the amygdala, which is in a way the fear center of the brain.

Many roller coaster riders do not enjoy the experience, normally feeling that the terror and discomfort they experienced during the anticipation of riding and the actual riding of the roller coaster to be a price not worth paying for the positive feeling invoked. Different people enjoy the feelings of adrenaline to different extents as well, where an adrenaline junkie will favour the experience much more than someone who is not used to the feeling.