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Neurogenetics

Fear not

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 7, page 6 (2006)Cite this article

The role of stathmin in emotional regulation was first proposed a couple of years ago. Gleb Shumyatsky and colleagues conducted a differential gene expression screen of single cell cDNA libraries derived from neurons of the hippocampus and the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA). They identified two genes, gastrin-related peptide (Grp) and stathmin, which are highly enriched in the LA but are almost absent from the hippocampus. As the LA lies at the crossroad where sensory information is transmitted from the auditory cortex and auditory thalamus to the amygdala — a crucial process for fear processing — the researchers set out to study whether these genes have a role in fear.

Writing in Cell, they show that mice lacking stathmin are fearless daredevils. Knockout mice do not seem to have instinctive fear, venturing bravely into potentially dangerous environments, such as open fields or elevated platforms, which normal mice would usually avoid.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Shumyatsky, G. P. et al. stathmin, a gene enriched in the amygdala, controls both learned and innate fear. Cell 123, 697–709 (2005)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Phelps, E. A. & LeDoux, J. E. Contribution of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior. Neuron 48, 175–197 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Jane Qiu
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Qiu, J. Fear not. Nat Rev Neurosci 7, 6 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1838

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