AI Article Synopsis

  • - A positive mental state can influence fear emotions, suggesting that brain mechanisms allow different feelings to interact.
  • - Dopamine, a key neurotransmitter involved in both reward and fear, plays a role in how these emotions affect each other, though its exact contribution was unclear until now.
  • - Research shows that activating dopamine neurons in mice during rewards can effectively alter fear memories and help with their extinction, highlighting a potential approach for treating fear-related disorders.

Article Abstract

A positive mental state has been shown to modulate fear-related emotions associated with the recall of fear memories. These, and other observations suggest the presence of central brain mechanisms for affective states to interact. The neurotransmitter dopamine is important for both Reward- and fear-related processes, but it is unclear whether dopamine contributes to such affective interactions. Here, we show that precisely timed Reward-induced activation of dopamine neurons in mice potently modifies fear memories and enhances their extinction. This Reward-based switch in fear states is associated with changes in dopamine release and dopamine-dependent regulation of fear encoding in the central amygdala (CeA). These data provide a central mechanism for Reward-induced modification of fear states that have broad implications for treating generalized fear disorders.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11398482PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.05.611495DOI Listing

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