Considerable evidence points to the amygdala, and specifically its lateral nucleus (LA), as a key site of the plasticity underlying the learning and storage of information about threatening or harmful life events. Most of what is known about this form of learning and memory has come from studies of classical or Pavlovian fear conditioning. The candidate for this K05 Award has contributed significantly to this body of work on the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning. His career plans include additional training in several areas that will allow him to pursue new lines of work on this topic. Specifically, he seeks training in molecular neuroscience and functional imaging of the human brain, and also hopes to achieve a deeper understanding of fear/anxiety disorders. He has assembled an international team of collaborators who will guide his training in these areas. Four sets of studies will be performed, each of which represents a funded area of research. The first project attempts to understand in greater detail the neural system underlying fear conditioning, and to determine how this basic circuitry interacts with systems involved in cognitive control over mental and behavioral functions. The second project addresses questions about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie fear conditioning and attempts to learn more about the receptor mechanisms, signaling pathways, genes, and proteins involved. The next two projects use functional imaging (fMRI) to examine the mechanisms of fear in normal humans (project 3) pathological fear in patients with anxiety disorders (project 4). Together, these studies should reveal new information about the neural basis of fear learning and memory at the systems, cellular and molecular levels, and should provide a better understanding of how fear mechanisms in experimental animals relate to brain mechanisms in normal humans and patients with anxiety disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Award (K05)
Project #
5K05MH067048-02
Application #
6699307
Study Section
Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience 8 (IFCN)
Program Officer
Anderson, Kathleen C
Project Start
2003-02-01
Project End
2008-01-31
Budget Start
2004-02-01
Budget End
2005-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$121,500
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Neurology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041968306
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10012
Isogawa, Koichi; Bush, David E A; LeDoux, Joseph E (2013) Contrasting effects of pretraining, posttraining, and pretesting infusions of corticotropin-releasing factor into the lateral amygdala: attenuation of fear memory formation but facilitation of its expression. Biol Psychiatry 73:353-9
Schiller, Daniela; Raio, Candace M; Phelps, Elizabeth A (2012) Extinction training during the reconsolidation window prevents recovery of fear. J Vis Exp :e3893
Schiller, Daniela; Monfils, Marie-H; Raio, Candace M et al. (2010) Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Nature 463:49-53
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Lanuza, E; Moncho-Bogani, J; Ledoux, J E (2008) Unconditioned stimulus pathways to the amygdala: effects of lesions of the posterior intralaminar thalamus on foot-shock-induced c-Fos expression in the subdivisions of the lateral amygdala. Neuroscience 155:959-68
Schiller, Daniela; Cain, Christopher K; Curley, Nina G et al. (2008) Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Learn Mem 15:394-402
Duvarci, Sevil; Nader, Karim; LeDoux, Joseph E (2008) De novo mRNA synthesis is required for both consolidation and reconsolidation of fear memories in the amygdala. Learn Mem 15:747-55

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