Threat conditioning and anxiety

Our understanding of the fear and defence circuitry of the brain primarily comes from animal studies, which allow partial translation of this research to humans.^1,2

References:

1. Duits P, Cath DC, Lissek S, et al. Updated meta-analysis of classical fear conditioning in the anxiety disorders. Depress Anxiety 2015; 32 (4): 239–253.
2. Plas SL, Tuna T, Bayer H, et al. Neural circuits for the adaptive regulation of fear and extinction memory. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18: 1352797.
3. LeDoux J, Daw ND. Surviving threats: neural circuit and computational implications of a new taxonomy of defensive behaviour. Nat Rev Neurosci 2018; 19 (5): 269–282.
4. Pittig A, Treanor M, LeBeau RT, Craske MG. The role of associative fear and avoidance learning in anxiety disorders: gaps and directions for future research. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2018; 88: 117–140.