TY - JOUR
T1 - Fear Thou Not
T2 - Activity of Frontal and Temporal Circuits in Moments of Real-Life Courage
AU - Nili, Uri
AU - Goldberg, Hagar
AU - Weizman, Abraham
AU - Dudai, Yadin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Nir Shvalb for help with the design and construction of the experimental setup, and Yossi Chalamish for interviewing potential candidates for the experiment. We are also grateful to Aya Ben Yakov, Ilan Dinstein, Micah Edelson, Orit Furman, Efrat Furst, Rachel Ludmer, Avi Mendelsohn, Ronly Paz, and Tali Sharot for valuable discussions. The support of the Israeli Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - How does the brain encode courage in a real-life fearful situation that demands an immediate response? In this study, volunteers who fear snakes had to bring a live snake into close proximity with their heads while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Bringing the snake closer was associated with a dissociation between subjective fear and somatic arousal. Activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and the right temporal pole was positively correlated with such action. Further, activity in the sgACC was positively correlated with the level of fear upon choosing to overcome fear but not upon succumbing to it. Conversely, activity in a set of interrelated temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala, was attenuated as the level of fear increased when choosing to overcome fear. We propose how the internally reinforced fast representational shift, in which the courageous-response representation gains control over behavior, takes place. Video Abstract:
AB - How does the brain encode courage in a real-life fearful situation that demands an immediate response? In this study, volunteers who fear snakes had to bring a live snake into close proximity with their heads while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Bringing the snake closer was associated with a dissociation between subjective fear and somatic arousal. Activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and the right temporal pole was positively correlated with such action. Further, activity in the sgACC was positively correlated with the level of fear upon choosing to overcome fear but not upon succumbing to it. Conversely, activity in a set of interrelated temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala, was attenuated as the level of fear increased when choosing to overcome fear. We propose how the internally reinforced fast representational shift, in which the courageous-response representation gains control over behavior, takes place. Video Abstract:
KW - Sysneuro
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77953928482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.06.009
DO - 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.06.009
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AN - SCOPUS:77953928482
VL - 66
SP - 949
EP - 962
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
SN - 0896-6273
IS - 6
ER -