Dysregulation of the fear system is at the core of many psychiatric disorders. Much progress
has been made in uncovering the neural basis of fear learning through studies in which …

Recent research on changing fears has examined targeting reconsolidation. During
reconsolidation, stored information is rendered labile after being retrieved. Pharmacological …

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a member of the neurotrophin family of structurally
related proteins that promote neuronal differentiation and survival during development [1, 2]…

Humans and animals can learn that specific sensory cues in the environment predict
aversive events through a form of associative learning termed fear conditioning. This learning …

Motor skill acquisition occurs through modification and organization of muscle synergies into
effective movement sequences. The learning process is reflected neurophysiologically as a …

Controlling learned defensive responses through extinction does not alter the threat memory
itself, but rather regulates its expression via inhibitory influence of the prefrontal cortex (PFC…

Decades of behavioral studies have confirmed that extinction does not erase classically
conditioned fear memories. For this reason, research efforts have focused on the mechanisms …

When reactivated, memories enter a labile, protein synthesis–dependent state, a process
referred to as reconsolidation. Here, we show in rats that fear memory retrieval produces a …

Empathy is a phenomenon often considered dependent on higher-order emotional control
and an ability to relate to the emotional state of others. It is, by many, attributed only to species …

Fear learning is associated with changes in synapse strength in the lateral amygdala (LA).
To examine changes in LA dendritic spine structure with learning, we used serial electron …