Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, If You Learned To: Study On Fear Responses Suggests New Understanding Of Anxiety Disorders

A new study on rats has identified a part of the brain's cortex that controls learned but not innate fear responses. The results suggest that hyperactivity in a region of the prefrontal cortex might contribute to disorders of learned fear in humans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders. This study contradicts prior thinking that the amygdala is sufficient for processing and expressing fear. "This is the first paper demonstrating that a region of the cortex is involved in learned fear but not in innate fear."