PONCE, Puerto Rico, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Puerto Rican scientists, using rats as a model, have identified a part of the brain's cortex that controls learned, but not innate, fear responses.
The study by Kevin Corcoran and Gregory Quirk of the Ponce School of Medicine suggests hyperactivity in a region of the prefrontal cortex might contribute to disorders of learned fear in humans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
While building on previous findings, the study contradicts prior thinking that the amygdala, which plays a central role in emotional learning, is sufficient for processing and expressing fear. The findings, say the researchers, open the potential for new avenues of treatment.
"This is the first paper demonstrating that a region of the cortex is involved in learned fear, but not in innate fear," said Markus Fendt of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. Fendt was not connected with the study. "Corcoran and Quirk's work raises the question of whether learned fear is more controllable -- for example, by higher brain functions -- than innate fear."
The study appears in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
