Abstract

SANCHEZ-RAMIREZ, Juan David  and  URIBE-VELASQUEZ, Luis Fernando. INTRACELLULAR MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN THE LEARNING AND MEMORY OF FEAR. Biosalud [online]. 2010, vol.9, n.1, pp.47-63. ISSN 1657-9550.

The neurobiology of fear is a large cellular configuration that implies the group activity of a large number of neurons. These connections suffer changes along the life cycle in a cellular activity-dependant process. This changes the effectiveness of the synaptic communication, facilitating the unchaining process of fear. Hence, the objective of this review is to describe the physiological process that cause those changes in fear, which begin with the activation of ionics and metabotropics receptors, and ending with the genomic stimulation and protein synthesis. Additionally, this paper explains the relation of fear while memories associated with it are established, as a factor that contributes to a higher frequency of discharging and cellular depolarization that favors long term changes due to intense neural excitation. In conclusion, fear can be neurobiologically strengthened after aversive stimulations, by the formation of associations between stimuli, as well as between them and the context, encouraging the organism to have a more efficient reactivity regarding a later meeting with the same threat or circumstance.

Keywords : learning; memory; fear; synapse; protein kinases; second messengers; transcription factors; genes.

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