Fear is highly adaptive in that it serves to protect us from harm in threatening situations. However, when fear is extreme or when it is inappropriate to the situation, it is no longer adaptive. My research is concerned with the neural circuits responsible for mediating fear as a useful adaptation, as well as with how altered brain function might promote maladaptive levels of fear. We use animal models of anxiety (rats being our animal of choice) to study how fear is regulated in the brain (e.g., what brain structures, neurochemicals and receptor types are involved?). We also explore how these neural systems and the defensive behaviors they regulate are modified by prior experience (e.g., maternal neglect in early life and/or chronic stress in adulthood). Our experimental approach involves behavioral testing, maternal care paradigms, intra-cerebral and peripheral drug administration, neuroanatomical lesions and immunohistochemistry.
