The neural mechanisms involved in behavioral responses related to emotions

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One of the most conspicuous characteristics of any organism is its ability to react to salient stimuli with an appropriate behavioral response that maximizes survival and minimizes threatening or unpleasant events. In mammals, emotions are considered as an evolutionary strategy to detect changes from the environment to direct proper behavioral responses. Emotions are generated by the complex interaction of interconnected brain structures part of the limbic system. The dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), the main serotonergic nucleus of the brain, receives signals from different nuclei of the limbic system and in return regulates emotions and behavioral responses by releasing the neuromodulator serotonin (5-HT) in different parts of the central nervous system. Experimental results suggest that the 5-HT would be important to process aversive signals that are important to orchestrate behaviors when something aversive is expected. However, the mechanisms by which 5-HT controls emotions and behaviors is still elusive. This can be explained by the technical difficulties in specifically measuring and controlling serotonergic pathways in vivo.