{"id":185377,"date":"2024-03-19T00:16:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T05:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/how-fear-unfolds-inside-our-brains"},"modified":"2024-03-19T00:16:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T05:16:53","slug":"how-fear-unfolds-inside-our-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/how-fear-unfolds-inside-our-brains","title":{"rendered":"How Fear Unfolds inside Our Brains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/how-fear-unfolds-inside-our-brains2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The stress-induced mechanisms that cause our brain to produce feelings of fear in the absence of threats have been mostly a mystery. Now, neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego have identified the changes in brain biochemistry and mapped the neural circuitry that cause such a generalized fear experience. Their research, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.adj5996\" target=\"_blank\">published in the journal <i>Science<\/i><\/a> on March 15, 2024, provides new insights into how fear responses could be prevented.<\/p>\n<p>In their report, former UC San Diego Assistant Project Scientist Hui-quan Li, (now a senior scientist at Neurocrine Biosciences), Atkinson Family Distinguished Professor Nick Spitzer of the School of Biological <i>Science<\/i>s and their colleagues describe the research behind their discovery of the neurotransmitters \u2014 the chemical messengers that allow the brain\u2019s neurons to communicate with one another \u2014 at the root of stress-induced generalized fear.<\/p>\n<p>Studying the brains of mice in an area known as the dorsal raphe (located in the brainstem), the researchers found that acute stress induced a switch in the chemical signals in the neurons, flipping from excitatory \u201cglutamate\u201d to inhibitory \u201cGABA\u201d neurotransmitters, which led to generalized fear responses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The stress-induced mechanisms that cause our brain to produce feelings of fear in the absence of threats have been mostly a mystery. Now, neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego have identified the changes in brain biochemistry and mapped the neural circuitry that cause such a generalized fear experience. Their research, published in the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}