[Science] How to regulate fear?

This article is original by Translational Medicine Network.
Please indicate the source for reprinting.
Author: Ashley Guide: Although fear is important for survival, if it is too strong or too weak, it will lead to maladjustment
.

Recent studies have observed in mouse experiments that the insular cortex has an unparalleled dual role in enhancing or reducing fear subsidence, depending on the animal's internal fear state
.

How does the brain maintain fear within its adaptive range? Studies have found that the insular cortex acts as a state-dependent fear regulator, which is necessary to establish a balance between the disappearance and maintenance of fear memories in mice
.

Fear is vital to survival, but it must be well regulated to avoid harmful behaviors such as panic attacks or exaggerated risks
.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology have now demonstrated in mice that the brain relies on feedback from the body to regulate fear
.

The insular cortex of the brain responds strongly to dangerous signals
.

However, when the body freezes in the fear response, the heartbeat slows down, causing the insular cortex to weaken
.

Processing these opposing signals helps the insular cortex to maintain a balance of fear
.

Therefore, the body's response is actively used to regulate emotions, and it is far more than a passive emotional response
.

We usually think that fear is extremely unpleasant
.

However, this emotion has a vital function: it prevents us from engaging in too risky behavior
.

However, this only works if the fear is kept within a healthy range
.

Excessive fear can seriously damage our daily lives, such as anxiety or panic attacks
.

So, how can we maintain the balance of fear? Obviously, body signals may play an important role, because fear can cause obvious changes in our body: faster heartbeat or shallow breathing
.

However, how the brain processes this information and ultimately regulates emotions such as fear is still largely unknown
.

Scientists in Nadine Gogolla's research group have now gained important new insights into the influence of the interaction between the body and the brain on emotional regulation
.

They focused on the insular cortex, a brain area that processes both positive and negative emotions
.

In addition, it also receives information from the body, such as from the heart or lungs
.

The researchers played a tone to the mouse and combined it with an unpleasant stimulus
.

After a while, rats began to fear this sound, which is expressed through "freezing", which is a typical fear behavior shared by humans and many other species
.

When the tone no longer matched the unpleasant stimulus, the mice gradually learned to no longer fear it
.

Recently, a study entitled "Fear balance is maintained by bodily feedback to the insular cortex in mice" was published in the journal Science
.

The insular cortex maintains the balance of fear In order to study the role of the insular cortex in fear regulation, scientists inactivated the insular cortex in the process of "fear and forgetting
.
"
Alexandra Klein, the first author of the study, said: "This result surprised us very much
.

We observed that the behavior of mice is very different, depending on the level of fear at the beginning
.

Compared with mice with normal insular cortex activity.
The rats with extreme fear forget their fear more slowly, while the rats with less fear forget their fear faster
.

” The results showed that the insular cortex kept the level of fear within a certain range
.

In extremely fearful animals, it helps to forget fear memories, and in less fearful mice, it helps maintain fear memories
.

To learn more about the underlying process, the researchers examined the activity of the insular cortex in mice with different levels of fear
.

In rats with lower levels of fear, the activity of the insular cortex increased when they were exposed to fear-evoking tones
.

Conversely, when a fearful animal hears a tone, the activity of the insular cortex decreases
.

Strikingly, Alexandra Klein observed that once a rat exhibits a freezing behavior caused by fear, its heart rate will drop, and the activity of the insular cortex will also drop
.

When the fearful rats heard the tone, the number and duration of motionlessness increased greatly, which could explain the observed inactivation of their insular cortex
.

Feedback from the body To test the link between heart rate and insular cortex activity, scientists used sympathetic nerves to interfere with the flow of information between the body and the brain
.

Interestingly, when the exchange between the heart and the brain was interrupted, the activity of the insular cortex remained stable and did not decrease during the freezing period
.

Therefore, this study shows that the insular cortex needs feedback from the body to maintain fear at an appropriate level
.

In addition, it also provides evidence that the physical changes that occur during freezing are an important part of emotional regulation, and freezing is far more than a passive emotional response
.

Since the dysfunction of the human insular cortex is related to various types of anxiety, this research provides us with exciting new perspectives
.

Can we use behavior and physical feedback to actively regulate emotions? Alexandra Klein said: "For a long time, neuroscience has overlooked the fact that the brain does not work independently
.
The
body also plays a role in emotion regulation.
A vital role
.

Our research shows that when trying to understand how emotions are regulated, we should consider the importance of body signals
.

"Reference: https://medicalxpress.
com/news/2021-11-brain -bodily.
html Note: This article aims to introduce medical research progress and cannot be used as a reference for treatment options
.

If you need health guidance, please go to a regular hospital
.

Recommendation·Activity [Live] WES helps to explore the molecular mechanism of tumor resistance.
Popular·Article Intestinal Microorganisms [Nature] "What you eat is what you eat"-the evidence is found! Biomarkers that reveal how diet ultimately affects immunity through the gut microbiota [Cell Sub-Journal] Non-coding regions of the cancer genome-the discovery of new prognostic biomarkers Single cell sequencing [Cell] Using single cell sequencing technology to analyze recent 600,000 human cells, Ren Bing’s team draws an ultra-large-scale human genome single-cell chromatin accessibility map! Intestinal microbes [BMC sub-Journal] Open a new door to the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases-the discovery of microbiota Tumor research [Science sub Journal] Dr.
Feng Yang from Baylor College of Medicine and his team discovered that MAPK6 gene can promote cancer growth, and targeting MAPK6 provides an effective treatment strategy for cancer! Diseases and health [Cell News] Long-term large amounts of salt are harmful to health! Vigilance: Research reveals for the first time that a high-salt diet will cause trouble to the brain even if it does not increase blood pressure.
Tumor Research [Nature] Edible oil promotes cancer metastasis, and researchers are actively promoting clinical trials of the first new drug!