Chapter 26 Emotional networks and motor control: a fearful view

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter describes research on the neural basis of fear conducted by laboratory and others. It describes the particular model of fear used—fear conditioning. Through studies of a specific emotion, fear, and a specific model of that emotion, fear conditioning, pathways involved in one aspect of emotion are able to map. One conclusion of this work is that, through the procedures of fear conditioning, the activity of a variety of different kinds of motor systems can be engaged. There may, in other words, not be an “emotional motor system” per se in the brain. Instead, it may be better to conceive of motor responses occurring during emotions as involving motor systems that may used in the service of emotions or other functions. The neural systems that mediate fear conditioning and the expression of conditioned fear responses are discussed and the chapter concludes with a consideration of what is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved.