By understanding multiple different components of
fear memory formation and modulation in humans and mice, a number of novel, powerful, and targeted treatment and intervention approaches may become possible.
The study came about when, a few years ago, Cho and Kim were selectively labeling and stimulating hippocampal neurons that project to the mPFC, and examining how this manipulation affects
fear memory formation in mice.
Understanding
fear memory formation is critical to developing more effective treatments and preventions for anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have learned that the molecule Notch, critical in many processes during embryonic development, is also involved in
fear memory formation.
Not exact matches
To confuse the issue further, other published research finds that in rats conditioned to
fear a shock to the foot,
memory formation and subsequent recall, or reconsolidation, are actually separate processes, suggesting that established
memories may be malleable and sensitive to disruption.
Decrease in this specific ecRNA prevented
formation of a long - lasting
fear memory, where rats learn to associate mild electrical shocks with a particular place.
Just to confuse the issue further, research that has just been published finds that in rats conditioned to
fear a shock to the foot,
memory formation and subsequent recall, or reconsolidation, are actually separate processes, and thus established
memories may be malleable and sensitive to disruption.
We realized that this could be an exciting finding that may account for how contextual information is processed and conveyed between brain areas for the
formation of
fear memory for the context associated with an aversive event.»
The hippocampus and the amygdala are required for
fear memory where the hippocampus is involved in the
formation and retrieval of context
fear associations and the amygdala is involved in conditioning and recall of associations to contextual and discrete cues [18, 19].
Context
fear conditioning demands that the hippocampus, a region of the brain important for
memory formation, be functional.