fear learning

Decoding stress vulnerability

Although stress can be considered as an ongoing process that helps an organism to cope with present and future challenges, when it is too intense or uncontrollable, it can lead to adverse consequences for physical and mental health. Social stress specifically, is a highly prevalent traumatic experience, present in multiple contexts, such as war, bullying and interpersonal violence, and it has been linked with increased risk for major depression and anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, not all individuals exposed to strong stressful events develop psychopathology, with the mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability being still under investigation. During this talk, I will identify key gaps in our knowledge about stress vulnerability and I will present our recent data from our contextual fear learning protocol based on social defeat stress in mice.

Fear learning induces synaptic potentiation between engram neurons in the rat lateral amygdala

Fear learning induces synaptic potentiation between engram neurons in the rat lateral amygdala. This study by Marios Abatis et al. demonstrates how fear conditioning strengthens synaptic connections between engram cells in the lateral amygdala, revealed through optogenetic identification of neuronal ensembles and electrophysiological measurements. The work provides crucial insights into memory formation mechanisms at the synaptic level, with implications for understanding anxiety disorders and developing targeted interventions. Presented by Dr. Kenneth Hayworth, this journal club will explore the paper's methodology linking engram cell reactivation with synaptic plasticity measurements, and discuss implications for memory decoding research.

Deep brain imaging of axon initial segment dynamics during associative fear learning

Fear learning conditions influence hippocampal-dependent memory and context discrimination

Multisensory integration and tone plasticity in the posterior insular cortex during auditory fear learning

Neural correlates and modulation of threat prediction in auditory thalamus upon associate fear learning

Cell-type specific signatures of plastic CS coding in the insula during fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

Cerebellar neuronal activity during emotional control and the role of cerebellar-mPFC pathway in fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

Dopamine prediction error signaling in a unique nigrostriatal circuit is critical for associative fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

Dorsal raphe nuclei/ventrolateral periaqueductal grey and cerebellar fastigial nucleus interactions modulate danger response during fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

Head-fixed social fear learning in mice with virtual spatial cues and real demonstrator

FENS Forum 2024

The role of affect sharing in observational fear learning: Comparing skin conductance, pupil size, and fMRI data

FENS Forum 2024

Vaults as trafficking granules in fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

VIP-expressing midbrain pathway controls potentiation of hippocampal inputs to the central amygdala during contextual fear learning

FENS Forum 2024

Viral vector manipulation of neurons activated by fear learning in the centromedial amygdala

FENS Forum 2024