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fear

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 17, 2022·8 min read

How Do Social Interactions Conjure Up Memories and Emotional Responses in the Brain?

Researchers reveal how memories and fear responses can be transmitted through social interactions.

This shows the outline of a person and a brain

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 8, 2022·3 min read

Discovery of Novel Brain Fear Mechanisms Offers Target for Anxiety-Reducing Drugs

Researchers have identified a new target in the brain that underpins the freezing response associated with anxiety and fear. The findings could provide a new drug target for anxiety-related disorders.

This is a cartoon of a scary shadow looming over a woman

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 19, 2022·5 min read

Haunted-House Experience Scares up Interesting Insights on the Body’s Reaction to Threats

The presence of friends increases arousal when people are exposed to scary stimuli, researchers report. Additionally, the stronger the response to the initial stimuli, the more fear response increases when exposed to subsequent scary stimuli.

This is a drawing of a mouse walking on a tightrope between a brain and a heart

Featured Neuroscience

·November 18, 2021·5 min read

The Brain Uses Bodily Signals to Regulate Fear

Study reveals how the brain relies on feedback from the body to regulate fear response. When a mouse's body freezes in response to fear, its heart rate slows, and this leads to attenuated insular cortex activity.

This shows neurons in the basolateral amygdala

Featured Neuroscience

·October 18, 2021·3 min read

Mammalian Motivation Circuits: Maybe They’re Born With It

Researchers have identified a pre-programmed neural circuit in the basolateral amygdala of mice that processes both positive and negative stimuli.

This shows a woman laying awake in the middle of the night

Featured Psychology

·October 16, 2021·4 min read

Why Do We Wake Around 3am and Dwell On Our Fears and Shortcomings?

Researchers investigate why many of us wake in the middle of the night and dwell on our fears.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 5, 2021·4 min read

Brain Circuits That Control Fear Responses Revealed

Researchers have identified a neural circuit that regulates threat response in mice.

This shows a person's hand an a cellphone image with the hand and a spider on it

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 26, 2021·5 min read

Augmented Reality Helps Tackle Fear of Spiders

A newly developed augmented reality smartphone app may help reduce the fear of spiders for arachnophobes.

This shows a man in a facemask surrounded by representations of covid-19

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 8, 2021·4 min read

‘Triple Contagion’: How Fears Influence Coronavirus Transmission

A new mathematical model incorporates fear, both of infection and vaccination, to better understand how pandemics occur in multiple waves of infection, as we are witnessing with COVID-19.

This is a brain slice with the amgydala highlighted

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 16, 2021·5 min read

How Micro-Circuits in the Brain Regulate Fear

The central amygdala isn't only the hub for fear response in the brain, it also contains microcircuits that regulate the suppression of fear response.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·June 4, 2021·5 min read

Gut Bacteria Connected to How Babies Experience Fear

Study reveals a significant association between an infant's gut microbiome and their fear response.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 24, 2021·5 min read

Specialized Inhibitory Cluster Gates Plasticity in Fear Learning

The apical intercalated cell cluster (apITC), a specialized portion of inhibitory circuitry in the amygdala, has rich connectivity and plays a unique role in modulating synaptic plasticity.