How the brain gathers threat cues and turns them into fear

August 16, 2022 Mary Canady News Comments Off on How the brain gathers threat cues and turns them into fear

LA JOLLA—Salk scientists have uncovered a molecular pathway that distills threatening sights, sounds and smells into a single message: Be afraid. A molecule called CGRP enables neurons in two separate areas of the brain to bundle threatening sensory cues into a unified signal, tag it as negative and convey it to the amygdala, which translates the signal into fear.

Subregions of the amygdala, the brain's emotion center, receive threat cues from different brain areas, including the brainstem (red) and thalamus (green).
Subregions of the amygdala, the brain’s emotion center, receive threat cues from different brain areas, including the brainstem (red) and thalamus (green).
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Credit: Salk Institute

The research, published in Cell Reports on August 16, 2022, may lead to new therapies for fear-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or hypersensitivity disorders…
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