Extinction and Active Coping Fear

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of affective neuroscience is the of detailed animal models for fear learning that have been confirmed and extended in investigations with humans. The neural systems identified in these animal models, which have relied on fear conditioning as a basic paradigm, have been implicated in the development of psychological disorders, such as anxiety disorders and drug addiction. Understanding the neural circuits important for the development of these disorders is a first step in linking basic science to their treatment. The next step is to understand how these learned emotional responses can be extinguished or altered by action. The goal of the proposed research is to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the extinction and active coping of conditioned fear across human and non-human species and as they are altered with anxiety disorders. There are three specific aims: Aim 1: To develop paradigms of extinction and fear coping that are similar across species allowing for the exploration of specific neural mechanisms in rodents that can be assessed using less invasive techniques in humans. Aim 2: To determine the link between the neural mechanisms of fear inhibition through extinction with the mechanisms underlying active coping/emotion regulation strategies. Aim 3: To assess how the behavioral expression and neural mechanisms underlying fear extinction and active coping differs between normal subjects and patients suffering from anxiety disorders.