Animal models of associative threat learning provide a basis for understanding human fears and anxiety. This talk will explore how the neural mechanisms identified in animal models are consistent with human brain function and extend this research to the complex learning situations more typical of human experience. Building on research from animal models of associative threat learning, I will discuss a range of means maladaptive defensive responses can be diminished in humans, starting with extinction and emotion regulation -- techniques adapted in cognitive behavioral therapy -- that control learned defensive responses via inhibitory signals from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to the amygdala. One drawback of these techniques is that these defensive responses are inhibited and can return, with one factor being stress. I will then describe novel behavioral techniques that might result in a more lasting fear reduction. Finally, I will discuss issues related to translating these techniques to novel treatments for clinical disorders.
Those wishing to meet the speaker should contact Maria Bompolaki in the Dranovsky lab. 


The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.