EBD Blog

Gleb Shumyatsky (Rutgers University) and colleagues have determined that the gene stathmin is especially important in the lateral amygdala region of the brain, the area that is important for learned (conditioned) and innate (unconditioned) fear responses. They found that mice lacking the gene displayed fewer fear responses and did not recognize some dangerous situations. According to Greg Miller writing for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s ScienceNow,

The stathmin knockout mice are relatively fearless. Not only do the mutant mice spend more time than do normal mice in exposed spaces, indicating a lack of innate fear, they’re also less prone to freeze up in fear when they hear a tone that previously signaled an impending electric shock, indicating an impairment of fear learning. The deficit seems specific to fear, however: the mutants performed normally on a task that requires swimming mice to learn and remember the location of a submerged platform

Although we must be cautious about generalizing from analog studies, this appears to be a promising result. Mr. Miller includes an interview with another scientist, Joseph LeDoux (New York University), who suggests that the finding may eventually lead to treatments for anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders affect many children and youths with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, so such developments would be valuable.

Link to Mr. Miller’s story (he has several humorous bits in it) and to the PubMed abstract of the study.