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This work was recently reported on as a Nature News Feature. These mice are being studied for cellular mechanisms of plasticity underlying the differences in their behavior. This work was recently summarized by MBF Bioscience Ī current ongoing project in Johnson lab involves a colony of backcrossed F8 generation C57BL/6J and DBA/2J (B6D2F1) mice which are being phenotyped for high and low Pavlovian fear conditioning. This work is ongoing and will incorporate reconsolidation auditory and visual conditioned stimuli and second order conditioning. In addition we recently identified that this pattern of neurons is updated during memory reconsolidation. Evidence for a stable topography of neurons that participate in fear memory formation may be a fundamental feature by which fear memory is represented in the amygdala. The consistency of the spatial pattern across animals that encoded the same associative memory demonstrates that the pattern of neurons (pMAPK activity) observed in the present data-set was reliable and non-random. Our data from ongoing work suggest the first evidence for a unique neural topography associated with formation of a fear memory. Identifying this intrinsic pattern is a key step in the quest to ultimately decoding memory storage. Work in my lab seeks to decode aspects of the engram of an individual fear memory in the amygdala by identifying the intrinsic pattern of amygdala neurons which are systematically activated during the acquisition of a memory, using statistical methods. Understanding the physical encoding of a memory by networks of neurons, known as the engram, is a fundamental question in neuroscience.
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I have coined this approach the study of the Microanatomy of Fear and Stress. We study fear and stress using Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats and mice including phenotype models of mice selected for High and Low fear behavior. The Johnson lab also investigates the microanatomy of glucorticoid receptors and their regulation of LA network behavior. One of the key mechanisms of the stress response is regulation of the HPA axis including modulation of adrenal steroids. In addition the Lab also seeks to directly understand the microanatomy of how stress interacts with the fear system. My lab seeks to quantify the neural circuits of the LA and also the organization of fear memories encoded by groups of LA neurons. However, knowledge of the cellular encoding of fear memory within the LA network is crucially lacking. This research has identified neural circuits that mediate synaptic plasticity at input synapses to the lateral amygdala (LA). Knowledge of where and how the brain processes fear and fear learning has greatly increased in the last few decades. These disorders can thus be thought of as either pathology of the acquisition of fear memory or as pathology in the expression of an otherwise normal fear memory. Anxiety and PTSD can be characterized by pathology in fear memory where responses are amplified and become debilitating.
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Fear pathology includes the anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using fear memory an organism can learn to associate and remember new threats with physical danger. Normal fear memory and fear responses are an essential part of any person’s or animal’s survival mechanism. Research in my lab seeks to address fundamental questions in the neurobiology of fear and stress with the aim of providing vital basic knowledge into the way the brain encodes normal and pathological fear memories.