Freeze or Run?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825131548.htm

Scientists have recently begun to perform something called "fear circuitry," basically controlling the way fear is activated in different parts of the brain, on lab mice. The scientists have genetically engineered the mouses' cells to where they contain a chemical receptor that reacts with a certain drug. When the drug is injected, certain receptors block electrical activity on the cells, which allows scientists to see which cells are involved with controlling fear. They did this in an area in the brain called the amygdala, and they shut off all the type I cells. They thought that since they shut off those cells in the amygdala, an area known to have functions to fear, they would be able to see what controlled fear and measure the amount of fear that the mice had when they heard a certain noise that scared them. They weren't surprised to see the mice freeze, but they were very surprised to see the mice do other actions instead, such as behaving in very risky manors and rearing. Instead of completely blocking fear, the scientists were instead changing the fear responses from passive to active, which was not what the amygdala was thought to do. So, the scientists scanned the brains of the mice to find out what they did wrong and they found that they had activated parts of the cortex of the brain. With that, the scientists may be able to go back to having the mice with freezing when scared, and start over with their tests to block fear.

I thought this article was pretty interesting, as I tend to like to be calm, rather than scared or in fear. I also think that having a team of fear-circuiting scientists is pretty neat, because they can conduct experiments as to how to control fear, which may lead to further strategies of stress-relief and ways to calm someone down if he/she may be scared. And also with the research, we might get some more medicine as stress-reducers, and medicine that will calm the nerves if someone is very scared of something. I'm very excited to see what kinds of strategies and medicines will benefit from this research. I think that we could really use the medicines.