Topic: social fear conditioning

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) presents a significant challenge in mental health, often stemming from traumatic social experiences and manifesting as profound fear and avoidance in social contexts. As one of the most prevalent neuropsychological disorders across adolescence and adulthood, its clinical importance is undeniable. However, the absence of a robust animal model has hindered comprehensive research efforts. In response, we developed a Social Fear Conditioning (SFC) mice model, mirroring the process of exposure therapy used in clinical settings.To elucidate age-dependent behavioral patt

Interactions between conspecifics trigger the release of dopamine (DA), primarily from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) into the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), promoting pleasure and positive reinforcement. Disruptions in DA levels can impact social motivation, potentially decreasing responsiveness to social reward and increasing the risk for social anxiety disorder.Using the social fear conditioning (SFC) paradigm, we investigated how DA regulates social motivation and its role in processing social fear. Our approach combined behavioural pharmacology and molecular techniques focusing on the VTA and

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is caused by stressful social encounters. The Social Fear conditioning (SFC) paradigm is able to effectively simulate the symptoms of social phobia, such as a severe fear and avoidance of social situations. The extinction phase of the SFC paradigm mimics exposure therapy for SAD and facilitates the learning of the disassociation between the trauma and the social context. The lateral septum (LS), known to be involved in socio-emotional regulation, abundantly expresses corticotropin-releasing factor receptors (CRFR1/CRFR2) and several lines of evidence implicate the