08:00am Monday 18 June 2018

Researchers Selectively Control Anxiety Pathways in the Brain

New study supports the role of a brain region called the amygdala in processing anxiety.
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3-D magnetic resonance imaging rendering of the human brain, functional MRI highlighted in red.A new study sheds light–both literally and figuratively–on the intricate brain cell connections responsible for anxiety.



The pathways are in a brain region called the amygdala. Prior research suggests the amygdala plays a role in anxiety, but earlier studies used widespread modifications of the amygdala, through drugs or physical disruption of the brain region, to study the way in which it affects anxiety. This new work, published in this week’s Nature, uses a tool called optogenetics–developed by Deisseroth and recently named Method of the Year by Nature Methods–to specifically tease out which pathways contribute to anxiety.




While optogenetics has been used to study amygdala function in behaviorally-conditioned fear, this is the first time it has been used to study anxiety. “Fear and anxiety are different,” Deisseroth explained. “Fear is a response to an immediate threat, but anxiety is a heightened state of apprehension with no immediate threat. They share the same outputs, for example physical manifestations such as increased heart rate, but their controls are very different.”


“Now that we know that these cell projections [in the amygdala] exist, we can first use this knowledge to understand anxiety more than we do now,” Deisseroth noted.

Deisseroth has previously used optogenetics to study deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease. This research was detailed last year in the journal Science and reported online by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

“Deep brain stimulation is increasingly being considered for psychiatric disorders, so after studying Parkinson’s disease, we started building towards research on psychiatric disorders,” Deisseroth commented. Next he wants to use these tools to study depression and autism spectrum disorders.

Groundwork for the optogenetics technique was funded by NSF. This research was supported by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the National Institutes of Health and NSF.


Media Contacts
Nicole Garbarini, NSF (703) 292-8463 ngarbari@nsf.gov

Program Contacts
Melur K Ramasubramanian, NSF (703) 292-5089 mramasub@nsf.gov

Principal Investigators
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University (650) 736-4325 deissero@stanford.edu



Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

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