Neural circuits regulating innate and learned fear responses

恐惧情绪是由先天或后天的感觉输入引起的。然而，人们对调节先天和后天恐惧情绪的神经机制知之甚少。我们已经成功地识别出了“恐惧气味”，这是一系列可以诱导小鼠强烈先天恐惧的气味。利用这些气味，我们发现先天和后天的恐惧是由整个大脑的不同大脑区域调节的，并伴随着不同的生理反应。

Fear emotion is evoked by sensory inputs either by innate or learned processes. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms that regulate innate and learned fear emotions. We have successfully identified "fear odors", a series of odorants that can induce potent innate fear in mice. Using these odors, we found that innate and learned fears are regulated by distinct brain regions throughout the whole brain, and are accompanied by distinct physiological responses.