![]() More specifically, amygdala neurons undergo specific chemical and structural changes that form an imprint, or memory, of the sensory image that accompanies a particular threat. In neuroscience lingo, the sensory input is “ potentiated.” In plain language: the previously unremarkable mugger’s face now evokes terror.īut how do we unlearn a traumatic memory that’s become dysfunctional? On these questions, we’re more in the dark. When one of these alert signals – say the pain of a shock or cut – is detected together with a sensory image (such as a particular face or the sound of a gunshot), neurons in the amygdala take notice. Each amygdala receives two basic kinds of inputs: streaming images from our senses, as well as incoming alerts conveying threats, danger, or pain. Fear lives in a small almond-shaped pair of brain structures, called the amgydalae, that control your body’s panic buttons. We already understand a good deal about how specific fears come to be thanks to classical neuroscience experiments, many done by Joseph LeDoux and his colleagues at New York University. The very molecular machinery that implants fear in the brain may also hold the key to its undoing. Roger Clem and Richard Huganir at Johns Hopkins, gives a spectacularly detailed view of how fear is learned, and points out fear’s Achilles Heel. The most recent of these studies, by Drs. A whispered reminder in an unfamiliar setting is sometimes all it takes.įrustrated with these grim facts, scientists have been looking for biologically based therapies that may some day help troubled minds forget debilitating fears. ![]() Even when emotional demons are quieted with therapy or drugs, they are prone to return. ![]() We manage, move on, shrug it off, and go about the business of filling our heads with thoughts of a better tomorrow.īut for war veterans and victims of violent crime, the persistence of traumatic memories can mean a life of disability. The lonely moral slip when your chips were down.ĭespite their sting, these unkind memories eventually slacken their grip.
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