Researchers from Columbia University in New York City have identified the neurons in mice that are responsible for stopping the formation of memories connected to fear.

Researchers from Columbia University in New York City have identified the neurons in mice that are responsible for stopping the formation of memories connected to fear.

The part of the brain known as the hippocampus holds the interneurons that regulate if the memory of a place or certain context is connected to feelings of fear based on a negative experience.

The interneurons process the fearful memory and pass it along to another part of the brain that associates it with a particular context or location.

For the study, mice were conditioned to associate the fear of a negative experience with a certain environment, but when scientists deactivated the interneurons, they found that the mice no longer showed signs of fear.

Attila Losonczy, from Columbia University (1,4,1) who worked on the study is quoted as saying: “If we understand how the circuits in our brain influence memory under normal conditions, we can then try to understand what actually went wrong during psychiatric disorders.”

Scientists hope that the results of this study will help them understand mental health issues like post traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety.