PSY 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Biological Neural Network, Psychopathology, Exposure Therapy
28 Apr 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Why study fear: the expression of fear looks similar across species, the neural circuit underlying these fear responses is similar across species, fear learning is thought to be at the heart of fear-based psychopathologies such as ptsd. One task that is used for studying fear mechanisms: fear conditioning. Fear conditioning: the establishment of fear in response to a previously neutral stimulus (cs) by pairing it with the delivery of an aversive stimulus (ucs) Cr: crying in response to the rat (in the absence of the noise) Lesions to the auditory cortex do not block fear conditioning to a simple tone. Lesions to the auditory thalamus (medial geniculate nucleus) do block fear conditioning. Received input from auditory areas and somatosensory areas that carry the shock signal. The lateral nucleus (la) of the amygdala receives input from the thalamus and cortex about the noise and shock. The central nucleus (ce) connects with the autonomic and motor control systems.
