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amygdala

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 30, 2022·2 min read

Why the Memory of Fear Is Seared Into Our Brains

Norepinephrine facilitates fear processing by stimulating a population of inhibitory neurons in the amygdala, generating repetitive bursting patterns of electrical activity. This activity changes the frequency of oscillations in the amygdala from resting state to aroused state, promoting the formation of fear memories.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology Visual Neuroscience

·May 10, 2022·4 min read

When Eyes Meet, Neurons Start to Fire

A specific set of socially tuned neurons fire across multiple regions across the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala at different times during mutual eye contact. The brain regions are recruited to compute selective aspects of interactive social gaze, suggesting the importance of a more contemplative role during social gaze interactions.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·April 25, 2022·5 min read

Where the Mind Is Without Fear

KNT-127, a chemically synthesized compound, helps suppress fear memories associated with PTSD, researchers report.

This shows different brain areas highlighted

Featured Neuroscience

·April 20, 2022·5 min read

Explore or Exploit: How Our Brains Make Choices

Study explores brain activity in primates and humans when presented with a choice between one option that maximizes information and another which prioritizes reward during decision making.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 18, 2022·5 min read

Memory Is Formed Through Rewiring of Global Network Among Pre-existing Local Neuronal Ensembles

Information about new experiences is retained by being tied to pre-existing activity patterns in the brain. Memory is acquired when the patterns are connected to each other across brain regions via transient bursts of activity.

This shows perinatal brain scans with the ASD related areas highlighted

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·April 5, 2022·3 min read

Autism-Associated Brain Differences Can Be Observed in the Womb

A neuroimaging study of perinatal brains at 25 weeks of gestation reveals significant differences in brain structures in children who were later diagnosed with autism and those who were not. The findings add to the mounting evidence that ASD begins in early development.

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·April 5, 2022·3 min read

Genetic ‘Hotspots’ That Speed up and Slow Down Brain Aging Could Provide New Targets for Alzheimer’s Drugs

15 newly discovered "hotspots" in the genome that either speed up or slow down brain aging could be new targets for the development of Alzheimer's medications and therapies for other brain disorders.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·April 3, 2022·4 min read

Midbrain Projection to the Basolateral Amygdala Encodes Anxiety-Like Behaviors

A ventral tegmental area dopamine neuron circuit that projects to the basolateral amygdala selectively controls anxiety-like behaviors, but not depression-like behaviors.

This shows the amygdala highlighted in a brain scan

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·March 25, 2022·6 min read

Amygdala Overgrowth in Babies Who Later Develop Autism

Overgrowth of the amygdala at 6 - 12 months is an early indicator of autism diagnosis later in childhood and could be used as an early diagnostic for ASD in children.

This is a cartoon of a scared looking man running

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·March 24, 2022·4 min read

Brand-New Brain Pathway to Fear Discovered

The sensory cortex, not the amygdala, is responsible for storing fear memories from past experiences, a new study reports.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·March 19, 2022·4 min read

How the Action of the Eye Triggers Brain Waves to Help Remember Socially Important Information

A new study uncovers how the amygdala reacts and triggers memory-making activity when the eyes come to rest on a face versus another object or image.

This shows a graph and the location of the amygdala in the brain

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 14, 2022·3 min read

Loneliness Has a Different Neural Basis Than Social Anxiety

People with social anxiety have increased amygdala activity during social decision making, and reduced activity in the nucleus accumbens during social feedback. Those who are lonely did not experience the same alterations as those with social anxiety, suggesting loneliness is a unique condition.