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Brain circuit can tune anxiety

August 21, 2013
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New findings may help neuroscientists pinpoint better targets for antianxiety treatments.

The tips of long neuronal extensions from the amygdala (blue) contact neurons of the hippocampus (green). This communication pathway helps to modulate anxiety.
Credit: Ada Felix-Ortiz


To develop better treatments, a more specific understanding of the brain circuits that produce anxiety is necessary, says Kay Tye, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences and member of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

"The targets that current antianxiety drugs are acting on are very nonspecific. We don't actually know what the targets are for modulating anxiety-related behavior," Tye says.

In a step toward uncovering better targets, Tye and her colleagues have discovered a communication pathway between two brain structures -- the amygdala and the ventral hippocampus -- that appears to control anxiety levels. By turning the volume of this communication up and down in mice, the researchers were able to boost and reduce anxiety levels.


Measuring anxiety





Complex interactions


"Neurons that look virtually indistinguishable from each other in a single region can project to different regions and these different projections can have totally opposite effects on anxiety," Tye says. "Anxiety is such an important trait for survival, so it makes sense that you want some redundancy in the system. You want a couple of different avenues to modulate anxiety."

The Neuron study contributes significantly to scientists' understanding of the roles of the amygdala and hippocampus in anxiety and offers directions for seeking new drug targets, says Joshua Gordon, an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University.

"The study specifies a particular connection in the brain as being important for anxiety. One could imagine, then, identifying components of the machinery of that connection -- synaptic proteins or ion channels, for example -- that are particularly important for amygdala-hippocampal connectivity. If such specific components could be identified, they would be potential targets for novel antianxiety drugs," says Gordon, who was not part of the research team.



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Journal Reference:

  1. Ada C. Felix-Ortiz, Anna Beyeler, Changwoo Seo, Christopher A. Leppla, Craig P. Wildes, Kay M. Tye. BLA to vHPC Inputs Modulate Anxiety-Related Behaviors. Neuron, 2013; 79 (4): 658 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.06.016

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Brain circuit can tune anxiety." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 August 2013. <>.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2013, August 21). Brain circuit can tune anxiety. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 2, 2015 from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Brain circuit can tune anxiety." ScienceDaily. (accessed August 2, 2015).

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