Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychopathological response that develops after exposure to an extreme life-threatening traumatic event. Its prevalence ranges from 0.5% to 14.5% worldwide. Due to the complex pathophysiology of PTSD, currently available treatment approaches are associated with high chances of failure, thus further research to identify better pharmacotherapeutic approaches is needed. The traumatic event associated with fear memories plays an important role in the development of PTSD and could be considered as the main culprit. PTSD patient feels frightened in a safe environment as the memories of the traumatic event are revisited. Neurocircuit involving normal processing of fear memories get disturbed in PTSD hence making a fear memory to remain to dominate even after years of trauma. Persistence of fear memories could be explained by acquisition, re-(consolidation) and extinction triad as all of these processes have been widely explored in preclinical as well as clinical studies and set a therapeutic platform for fear memory associated disorders. This review focuses on neurocircuit and pathophysiology of PTSD in context to fear memories and pharmacological targeting of fear memory for the management of PTSD.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2019.172824 | DOI Listing |
Heliyon
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, and National Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan, China.
The anterior cingulate cortex is responsible for multiple cognitive functions like fear, pain management, decision-making, risk and reward assessment, and memory consolidation. However, its cell-type-specific functions are not clearly understood. To reveal the selective functional role of Parvalbumin-expressing GABAergic interneurons in the ACC, we knocked down (KD) the PV gene in-vivo in rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurol
January 2025
Institution of Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Research, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
Background: In nature, animals must learn to recognize danger signals and respond immediately to threats to improve their environmental adaptation. However, excessive fear responses can lead to diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder, wherein traumatic events result in persistent traumatic memories. Therefore, erasing pathological fear memories is a crucial topic in neuroscience for understanding the nature of memories and treating clinically relevant diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMem Cognit
January 2025
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia, 5042, Australia.
People show enhanced memory recall for disgust over fear, despite both being highly negative and arousing emotions. But does disgust's 'stickiness' in memory result in more false memories for disgust versus fear? Existing research finds low false-memory rates for disgust and fear, perhaps from using image lures depicting content unrelated to target images. Therefore, we presented 111 participants with disgust, fear, (and neutral) images during an attention-monitoring task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Neuroradiol
January 2025
Neurosciences Research Center (NSRC), Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a prevalent cardiovascular condition associated with cognitive impairments, including memory deficits and attention lapses. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying HTN-related cognitive dysfunction is crucial for optimizing treatment strategies.
Method: A systematic review was conducted to explore the impact of antihypertensive medications on cognition, focusing on memory, attention, and emotion processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Scopolamine is the secondary metabolite of the Datura stramonium and act as a muscarinic receptor antagonist. Previous studies showed that scopolamine caused attention and memory deficit. However, the effects of scopolamine on specific cognitive functions, such as fear learning and social recognition, remain poorly understood.
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