WASHINGTON — Innovative experimental approaches with human participants and animal models point to the effects of fear and stress on the brain — and suggest ways to ameliorate these impacts. The findings will be presented on Monday, November 13, 12:45–1:45 p.m. at Neuroscience 2023 , the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Fear and anxiety are normal, healthy emotional responses to some stimuli; however, there are times when they become unhealthy and interfere with our ability to function. Chronic stress and dysfunctional fear learning (such as that underlying phobias) affect millions of people. Research with virtual reality experiments and animal models are contributing to the understanding of how fear can be learned and unlearned, as well as how chronic stress changes brain connectivity and behavior.
New findings show that:
“Many people struggle with the mental and physical health effects of excessive fear and chronic stress,” says Luiz Pessoa, a professor of psychology and director of the Maryland Neuroimaging Center at the University of Maryland. “The findings presented today shed light on how fear and stress impact the brain and suggest novel ways of unlearning dysfunctional fears.”
This research was supported by national funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations. Find out more about social behavior and the brain on BrainFacts.org.
Monday, November 13, 2023
12:45–1:45 p.m. EST
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Room 202B
Fear, Stress, Anxiety Press Conference Summary
Fear in action: Fear Conditioning and alleviation through body movements
Ai Koizumi, Bellkoizumi@gmail.com , Abstract PSTR363.05
Social buffering switches fear to safety encoding by oxytocin recruitment of central amygdala “buffer neurons”
Ron Stoop, rstoop@unil.ch , Abstract PSTR162.05
Model-based extinction of the fear of heights by active flight experience in VR
Masahiko Haruno, mharuno@nict.go.jp , Abstract PSTR423.18
Opposing amygdala-striatal pathways enable chronic stress to promote habit formation
Kate Wassum, kwassum@ucla.edu , Abstract PSTR289.22
Brain-wide mapping of fear memory circuits throughout development
Laura DeNardo, ldenardo@ucla.edu , Abstract NANO11.09
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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 35,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system.