Week 9 - fear and OCD

Question 1

What is the main brain area involved in fear?

Answer 1

• Amygdala

Question 2

What is important for threat and safety learnign

Answer 2

Threat - Amygdala

Safety - VMPFC - also in reward learning , extinction learning.

Question 3

Key facts on anxiety disorders

Answer 3

• affects 19 million people in US
• Lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder is 25%

Question 4

WHat happens to the PFC under stress

Answer 4

• Frontal lobe loss of regulation due to the amydala being used more and releasing NOREPINERPHRINE and dopamine which disconnect link between PFC neurons, that is why we find it hard to do cognitive tests under stress

Question 5

Brain areas involved in OCD

Answer 5

• Striatum
• PFC
• Thalamus
• Basal ganglia

Question 6

What are the two pathways with how a stressful situation may be viewed and with the amygdala?

Answer 6

First alert system
Amygdala - Anterior thalamus
Such as seen a bending object on the floor and moving out the way as it could be a snake

Second pathway
Amygdala - Sensory cortex
pulling on more sensory information to see if it is acually a snake or not after all