• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, July 25, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

How the brain gathers threat cues and turns them into fear

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 16, 2022
in Biology
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
ADVERTISEMENT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

LA JOLLA (August 16, 2022)—Salk scientists have uncovered a molecular pathway that distills threatening sights, sounds and smells into a single message: Be afraid. A molecule called CGRP enables neurons in two separate areas of the brain to bundle threatening sensory cues into a unified signal, tag it as negative and convey it to the amygdala, which translates the signal into fear.

Science image

Credit: Salk Institute

LA JOLLA (August 16, 2022)—Salk scientists have uncovered a molecular pathway that distills threatening sights, sounds and smells into a single message: Be afraid. A molecule called CGRP enables neurons in two separate areas of the brain to bundle threatening sensory cues into a unified signal, tag it as negative and convey it to the amygdala, which translates the signal into fear.

 

The research, published in Cell Reports on August 16, 2022, may lead to new therapies for fear-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or hypersensitivity disorders such as autism, migraines and fibromyalgia.

 

“The brain pathway we discovered works like a central alarm system,” says senior author Sung Han, assistant professor in Salk’s Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology. “We were excited to find that the CGRP neurons are activated by negative sensory cues from all five senses—sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Identifying new threat pathways provides insights into treating fear-related disorders.”

 

Most external threats involve multisensory cues, such as the heat, smoke and smell of a wildfire. Previous research showed that different pathways independently relay sound, sight, and touch threat cues to multiple brain areas. A single pathway that integrates all these cues would be beneficial to survival, but no one had ever found such a pathway.  

 

Previous research also showed that the amygdala, which initiates behavioral responses and forms fear memories to environmental and emotional stimuli, receives heavy input from brain regions that are laden with a chemical associated with aversion, the neuropeptide CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide).

 

“Based on these two pools of research, we proposed that CGRP neurons, found especially in subregions of the thalamus and the brainstem, relay multisensory threat information to the amygdala,” says co-first author Shijia Liu, a graduate student in the Han lab. “These circuits may both generate appropriate behavioral responses and help form aversive memories of threat cues.”

 

The team conducted several experiments to test their hypotheses. They recorded CGRP neuron activity using single-cell calcium imaging while presenting mice with multisensory threat cues, enabling the researchers to pinpoint which sensory modality involved which sets of neurons. They determined the path the signals took after leaving the thalamus and brainstem using different colored fluorescent proteins. And they conducted behavioral tests to gauge memory and fear.

 

Taken together, their findings show that two distinct populations of CGRP neurons—one in the thalamus, one in the brainstem—project to nonoverlapping areas of the amygdala, forming two distinct circuits. Both populations encode threatening sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches by communicating with local brain networks. Finally, they discovered that both circuits are necessary for forming aversive memories—the kind that tell you, “Stay away.”

 

“While mice were used in this study, the same brain regions also abundantly express CGRP in humans,” says Han, holder of the Pioneer Fund Developmental Chair. “This suggests that the circuits reported here may also be involved in threat perception-related psychiatric disorders.”

 

The authors hope to examine how CGRP signaling in these circuits mediates disorders involving multisensory stimuli processing abnormalities, such as migraines, PTSD and autism spectrum disorder.

 

“We haven’t tested it yet, but migraines might also activate these CGRP neurons in the thalamus and brainstem,” says co-first author Sukjae Joshua Kang, a postdoctoral fellow in the Han lab. “Drugs that block CGRP have been used to treat migraines, so I’m hoping that our study can be an anchor to use this kind of drug in relieving threat memories in PTSD, or sensory hypersensitivity in autism, too.”

 

Other authors included Mao Ye, Dong-Il Kim, Gerald M. Pao and Kuo-Fen Lee of Salk; Bryan A. Copits of Washington University in St. Louis; Benjamin Z. Roberts of UC San Diego; and Michael R. Bruchas of University of Washington.

 

The work was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH116203; 1R01MH111520; R01MH112355), Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (Bridge to Independence award SFARI #388708), Salk Women & Science Special Award, Mary K. Chapman Foundation, and Jesse & Caryl Philips Foundation.

 

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk’s mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer’s, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu.



Journal

Cell Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111222

Article Title

A central alarm system that gates multi-sensory innate threat cues to the amygdala

Article Publication Date

16-Aug-2022

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Machine Learning Uncovers Sorghum’s Complex Mold Resistance

July 20, 2025
blank

Archaeal Ribosome Shows Unique Active Site, Hibernation Factor

July 17, 2025

Mobile Gene Regulator Balances Arabidopsis Shoot-Root Growth

July 16, 2025

Mobile Transcription Factor Drives Nitrogen Deficiency Response

July 16, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • AI Achieves Breakthrough in Drug Discovery by Tackling the True Complexity of Aging

    70 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
  • USF Research Unveils AI Technology for Detecting Early PTSD Indicators in Youth Through Facial Analysis

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Additive Manufacturing of Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cells

Machine Learning Uncovers Sorghum’s Complex Mold Resistance

Pathology Multiplexing Revolutionizes Disease Mapping

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.