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Abstract
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Stress induces a neurotransmitter switch that leads to fear in harmless situations.
Fear is essential for survival, but its generalization to nondangerous environments can be harmful. Fear generalization occurs in many stress and trauma disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); yet, the mechanisms by which fear is generalized remain unclear. On page 1252 of this issue, Li et al. (1) report that in mice, generalized fear induced by acute stress results from a switch in the neurotransmitters released by a subpopulation of neurons in a specific area of the brain (the lateral wings of the dorsal raphe) from glutamate to g-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Their findings elucidate how fear is generalized in response to stress, provide clues aS to how these changes may influence other areas of the brain that modulate fear, and open the door for potential future interventions that reverse fear generalization.
Language: en |