The basic neuroscience of emotional experiences in mammals: The case of subcortical FEAR circuitry and implications for clinical anxiety

Evidence from behavioral neuroscience strongly suggests that the unconditional (innate) capacity to experience fear, along with fear-typical patterns of autonomic and behavioral arousal, arise from specific systems of the brain—the most prominent being a FEAR circuit which courses between the central amygdala and the periaqueductal gray of the midbrain. These circuits also mediate the raw […]