Article
Neurosciences
Weronika Szadzinska, Konrad Danielewski, Kacper Kondrakiewicz, Karolina Andraka, Evgeni Nikolaev, Marta Mikosz, Ewelina Knapska
Summary: Fear extinction training gradually changes the vHIP-PL connectivity, allowing for fear suppression. In the absence of fear suppression from the vHIP, signals from the BL play a dominant role, resulting in heightened fear levels.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Kylie A. Huckleberry, Roberto Calitri, Anna J. Li, Mackenna Mejdell, Ashna Singh, Vasvi Bhutani, Mikaela A. Laine, Andrei S. Nastase, Maria Morena, Matthew N. Hill, Rebecca M. Shansky
Summary: Increasing evidence suggests that there may be differences in the neurobiological processes underlying learning and memory in males and females, but the specific mechanisms are not fully understood. This study explored the potential sex differences in the modulation of fear conditioning and extinction by endocannabinoids (eCBs). The results showed that females classified as "Darters" responded differently to the administration of eCB receptor drugs compared to those classified as "Non-darters". These findings suggest that there may be a sex-specific dependence on CB1Rs for context processing in females that is sensitive to disruption by TRPV1.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Christine Stubbendorff, Carl W. Stevenson
Summary: Research has shown that dopamine plays a crucial role in regulating various contextual fear processes, although the related neurochemical mechanisms are still not fully understood. Understanding how dopamine regulates contextual fear can provide novel insights into the neurochemical modulation of neural circuit function underlying memory processing.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Daniel Jercog, Nanci Winke, Kibong Sung, Mario Martin Fernandez, Claire Francioni, Domitille Rajot, Julien Courtin, Fabrice Chaudun, Pablo E. Jercog, Stephane Valerio, Cyril Herry
Summary: The study found that threat representations and avoidance behavior initiation are dynamically encoded in the overall population activity of dmPFC neurons in mice. While dmPFC population activity at stimulus onset encodes sustained threat representations driven by the amygdala, it does not predict action outcome. Transient dmPFC population activity before the initiation of action reliably predicts avoided from non-avoided trials, revealing the dynamic process of information linking threats with defensive actions within prefrontal networks.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Elisabetta Baldi, Alessia Costa, Barbara Rani, Maria Beatrice Passani, Patrizio Blandina, Adele Romano, Gustavo Provensi
Summary: Exposure-based therapy is the main approach for treating pathological fear and anxiety symptoms; however, relapses are common due to the demanding and lengthy process. Combining cognitive therapy with pharmacological agents may improve efficacy. Oxytocin has shown anxiolytic effects and may strengthen inhibitory associations in fear extinction, with receptors found in critical brain regions for fear behavior.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Ka Ng, Michael Pollock, Abraham Escobedo, Brent Bachman, Nanami Miyazaki, Edward L. L. Bartlett, Susan Sangha
Summary: Stressful events can disrupt regulation of fear and reward processing, leading to maladaptive fear responses. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by persistent fear reactions to safety cues. In this study, the necessity of specific projections from the infralimbic cortex (IL) to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or central amygdala (CeA) during safety recall was tested. The IL->CeA pathway was found to be necessary for suppressing fear responses in the presence of a learned safety cue, similar to the behavioral disruption seen in individuals with PTSD.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Augustin C. Hennings, Samuel E. Cooper, Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock, Joseph E. Dunsmoor
Summary: This review suggests that reliance on traditional univariate analysis of fMRI has hindered translational neuroimaging efforts in the field of threat conditioning and extinction. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) provide a more sensitive analysis tool by leveraging the information present in spatial patterns of activity. The use of MVPA has successfully bridged rodent models of amygdala, hippocampus, and mPFC function during Pavlovian learning in human fMRI studies.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Ying Li, Weijia Zhi, Bing Qi, Lifeng Wang, Xiangjun Hu
Summary: Fear is an adaptive response to danger and fear memory plays a crucial role in warning individuals in dangerous situations, which is essential for survival. Abnormal fear memory can lead to neuropsychiatric disorders. The study of fear has advanced from brain regions to neural circuits and molecular mechanisms. This article outlines the basics of fear memory and reviews the neurobiological mechanisms of fear extinction and relapse, aiming to provide new insights for future research on fear emotions and potential treatments for trauma and fear-related disorders.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Elizabeth E. Manning, Laura A. Bradfield, Mihaela D. Iordanova
Summary: In complex environments, organisms need to adapt their responses to conflicting information. Behavioral procedures like extinction, reversal learning, and active avoidance all rely on overlapping neural circuits to help organisms respond appropriately under conflict.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Ying Liu, Shuai Ye, Xin-Ni Li, Wei-Guang Li
Summary: Fear extinction is a biological process that reduces learned fear behavior without reinforcement, allowing organisms to adapt to changing situations. Recent research has shown that extinction memory is more forgettable than the original fear memory, but the cellular and synaptic traces of this extinction memory in the brain are still unclear. This review discusses the latest advances in engram circuits and neural connectivity plasticity for fear extinction, aiming to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic competition between fear and extinction memories in the control of conditioned fear responses.
NEUROSCIENCE BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Robert J. Pawlik, Liubov Petrakova, Alexandra Cueillette, Katharina Krawczyk, Nina Theysohn, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Harald Engler
Summary: Inflammation may affect the formation and persistence of interoceptive fear and hypervigilance, which is relevant to psychiatric disorders and chronic pain. Two studies were conducted to analyze the effects of inflammation on fear learning and extinction, using endotoxemia as a model and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Despite robust inflammatory and emotional responses, no direct effects of inflammation on fear ratings or the formation/extinction of conditioned fear were observed. However, inflammation during fear acquisition enhanced neural responses to interoceptive but not exteroceptive stimuli during extinction learning, and resulted in enhanced negative valence ratings for interoceptive stimuli during unexpected re-exposure.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Franklin B. Krasne, Raphael Zinn, Bryce Vissel, Michael S. Fanselow
Summary: The study focuses on the extinction of contextual fear in exposure therapy for fear disorders, introducing a new neurocomputational model BaconX. The model explains how contextual representations are formed and associated with fear, and predicts factors influencing successful extinction, such as session length and context change.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Lana Ruvolo Grasser, Tanja Jovanovic
Summary: The development of fear and safety learning in children and adolescents differs from that in adults, potentially affecting the development of emotional disorders. Incomplete functional circuits between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex may be a contributing factor to these differences.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Martin P. Paulus, Murray B. Stein, Alan N. Simmons, Victoria B. Risbrough, Robin Halter, Sandra R. Chaplan
Summary: The study suggests that JNJ-42165279 at this dose shares some effects with existing anxiolytic agents in dampening response to emotional stimuli but not responses to conditioned fear.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Anabel M. M. Miguelez Fernandez, Hanna M. Molla, Daniel R. Thomases, Kuei Y. Tseng
Summary: The study shows that disruption of prefrontal cortex (PFC) alpha 7nAChR signaling impacts hippocampal and amygdalar transmission, with significant effects observed in adult rats. Prefrontal infusion of MLA affects trace fear-conditioning and extinction in an age-dependent manner, potentially due to the late-adolescent maturation of ventral hippocampal-PFC functional connectivity and its modulation by alpha 7nAChR signaling.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Jamie N. Krueger, Susan Sangha
Summary: Discriminating between safety cues and threat cues requires downregulating fear to the safety cue while continuing to express fear to the threat cue. However, successful discrimination between safety and threat cues does not necessarily guarantee that the safety cue can effectively reduce fear to the threat cue when they are presented together.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Keitaro Yoshida, Michael R. Drew, Anna Kono, Masaru Mimura, Norio Takata, Kenji F. Tanaka
Summary: Chronic stress is found to impair goal-directed motivation, which is crucial for the treatment of patients with depression. Research using a mouse model revealed that the hyperactivity in the ventral hippocampus is a neural circuit mechanism responsible for stress-induced impairments in goal-directed behavior, and antidepressant treatments can restore motivated behavior by normalizing ventral hippocampal activity.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Meeting Abstract
Clinical Neurology
Michael R. Williamson, Cathleen Joy A. Fuertes, Michael R. Drew, Theresa A. Jones
Article
Cell Biology
Michael R. Williamson, Cathleen Joy A. Fuertes, Andrew K. Dunn, Michael R. Drew, Theresa A. Jones
Summary: This study demonstrates that reactive astrocytes play a crucial role in vascular repair and remodeling after ischemic stroke in mice, by activating transcriptional programs related to vascular remodeling. Ablation of reactive astrocytes significantly impairs vascular and extracellular matrix remodeling, leading to prolonged blood flow deficits, exacerbated vascular permeability, ongoing cell death, and worsened motor recovery. These findings highlight the critical role of reactive astrocytes as cellular mediators of vascular remodeling during neural repair.
Article
Neurosciences
Freddyson J. Martinez-Rivera, Jose Perez-Torres, Coraly D. Velazquez-Diaz, Marcos J. Sanchez-Navarro, Carlos I. Huertas-Perez, Maria M. Diehl, Mary L. Phillips, Suzanne N. Haber, Gregory J. Quirk
Summary: Projections from the AI/LO to the rPL decrease avoidance behavior following extinction, and reduced activity in these pathways may contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Augustin C. Hennings, Mason McClay, Michael R. Drew, Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock, Joseph E. Dunsmoor
Summary: Research has shown that competing experiences of fear and extinction are stored as distinct memory traces in the brain. This divided organization is important for preventing overgeneralization of fear and maintaining threat associations. However, the mechanisms involved in organizing these memories in the human brain are still unclear.
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Susan Sangha
Summary: Researchers used a variety of techniques to study the role of dopaminergic input to the basolateral amygdala in social behavior deficits caused by early-life adversity.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Heidi C. Meyer, Susan Sangha, Jason J. Radley, Ryan T. LaLumiere, Michael Baratta
Summary: Flexible calibration of threat responding in accordance with the environment allows animals to avoid harm while maintaining engagement in goal-directed actions. Stress exposure can alter threat response regulation, leading to enhanced fear conditioning and disrupted extinction and safety conditioning. Previous experiences with control or coping strategies may protect against the effects of future adversity.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Maria M. Diehl, Bethany A. Plakke, Eric R. Albuquerque, Lizabeth M. Romanski
Summary: The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) is involved in processing social stimuli, such as faces and vocalizations, and encoding features like emotional expression and caller identity. This integration of stimulus and contextual information is important for social communication.
Article
Neurosciences
Abigail Hackleman, Muhja Ibrahim, Kevin Shim, Susan Sangha
Summary: This study found that stress exposure can increase alcohol consumption in rats, particularly in the context of reward-fear-safety cue learning, with a stronger effect observed in females.
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Kenji J. Nishimura, Andrew M. Poulos, Michael R. Drew, Abha K. Rajbhandari
Summary: Extreme stress can lead to long-lasting changes in affective behavior, which can be seen in conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To understand the biological mechanisms behind trauma-induced behavioral dysregulation, reliable and rigorous pre-clinical models are needed. Pavlovian fear conditioning has been widely used to study the effects of trauma, but often overlooks the long-lasting nonassociative fear sensitization caused by severe stress. This paper reviews recent research on stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL), a valuable rodent model that can distinguish between associative and nonassociative effects of stress.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Ka H. Ng, Susan Sangha
Summary: Cues in the environment can affect fear and reward-seeking behaviors, with safety cues reducing fear. Previous research showed that the infralimbic prefrontal cortex plays a role in suppressing fear during safety cues. This study aimed to investigate safety cue-specific neural activity in the infralimbic cortex using a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. The results showed that neurons were excited by both fear and safety cues, with some neurons being excited by both fear and reward cues and some showing bidirectional responses. Neural activity was also negatively correlated with freezing behavior. These findings emphasize the importance of the infralimbic cortex in encoding specific aspects of conditioned inhibitors during active fear suppression.
Article
Neurosciences
Ka Ng, Michael Pollock, Abraham Escobedo, Brent Bachman, Nanami Miyazaki, Edward L. L. Bartlett, Susan Sangha
Summary: Stressful events can disrupt regulation of fear and reward processing, leading to maladaptive fear responses. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by persistent fear reactions to safety cues. In this study, the necessity of specific projections from the infralimbic cortex (IL) to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or central amygdala (CeA) during safety recall was tested. The IL->CeA pathway was found to be necessary for suppressing fear responses in the presence of a learned safety cue, similar to the behavioral disruption seen in individuals with PTSD.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Jacklynn M. Fitzgerald, E. Kate Webb, Susan Sangha
Summary: Discrimination between danger cues and safety cues in the environment is crucial for survival, and extends to the discrimination of reward as well, which remains understudied in human research. This study translated a rodent task for fear, reward, and neutral discrimination (FRND) into a human task. Results showed that participants rated reward cues the highest, fear cues the lowest, and neutral cues in between, while skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude was largest for fear and reward cues, and lowest for neutral cues. The FRND is a useful paradigm for assessing psychological and physiological discrimination of fear and reward.
Meeting Abstract
Neurosciences
Ka Ng, Michael Pollock, Abraham Escobedo, Brent Bachman, Susan Sangha
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Edna C. Cieslik, Markus Ullsperger, Martin Gell, Simon B. Eickhoff, Robert Langner
Summary: Previous studies on error processing have primarily focused on the posterior medial frontal cortex, but the role of other brain regions has been underestimated. This study used activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses to explore brain activity related to committing errors and responding successfully in interference tasks. It was found that the salience network and the temporoparietal junction were commonly involved in both correct and incorrect responses, indicating their general involvement in coping with situations that require increased cognitive control. Error-specific convergence was observed in the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, posterior thalamus, and left superior frontal gyrus, while successful responding showed stronger convergence in the dorsal attention network and lateral prefrontal regions. Underrecruitment of these regions in error trials may reflect failures in activating the appropriate stimulus-response contingencies necessary for successful response execution.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2024)
