Nothing to be afraid of?

Abstract

Most people will keep their speed in check when driving through slippery country roads in the pouring rain. Some might do so because they have been instructed by wiser but less fortunate fellow drivers who have been involved in car accidents in similar conditions, others to avoid a repeat performance of their own past. The fear or anxiety one experiences in the former case is fear of a potential event that has never been experienced, and can only been imagined after being communicated by someone else. In the latter case, by contrast, it is fear invoked by a personal experience, a personal memory.In a recent functional imaging study, Phelps and colleagues have shown that the neural circuitry involved in the emotional response to a fearful stimulus associated with the representation of an aversive outcome is similar, but not identical, to that involved in the response to a stimulus that has been associated through experience to an aversive outcome1xActivation of the left amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear. Phelps, E.A. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 2001; 4: 437–441Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (546)See all