neuroscientist have traced feelings of anxiety to a specific group of head cellular phone , which they have imaginatively named “ anxiety cells ” . Even more excitingly , the team has discover how to check these worry - stimulate nerve cell and , by doing so , reduce the symptom of anxiety . Their finding have been bring out in the journalNeuron .
The researchers used a technique calledcalcium imagingon mice . This involves stick in miniature microscope into the mouse ’s mind and transcription cell activeness in the genus Hippocampus as they go about their Clarence Day - to - day business .
When the critters were stressed – in this case , because they enter an expose sphere , which ( theoretically ) left them vulnerable to predators – the investigator observed gamey levels of bodily process in the ventral part of the hippocampus . The more anxious the mouse , the more active the neuron .
These " anxiety cells " probably exist in humankind too , Rene Hen , a prof of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center ( CUIMC ) , enounce in astatement .
But the investigator did n’t just identify the cells – they figured out a way to control them . The team usedoptogenetics , a mental process that involves beams of light , to call on the anxiousness cells " off " . When in this nation , the mice pretend less fearful . They became bold and progressively cut aside from the walls and into the receptive space . When the cells were stimulated , however , the researcher observed the opposite reaction . The mice were trepid of even the " dependable " surface area , i.e. beside the wall .
A certain amount of anxiousness is a good thing . It might drive you to study a little harder for a examination or run aside from an oncoming railroad car or , as may have been the character for our prehistoric ancestors , a saber - toothed qat .
Too much , however , can be disruptive , not to bring up super unpleasant for the individual involved . Today , anxiousness is the creation ’s most common genial malady , affecting18.1 percent of Americansin any given twelvemonth . Those with the disorder overestimate potential terror – it ’s no longer a vulture causing your anxiety to flare but a crowded train carriage or a tight deadline .
But findings here bestow to the growingbody of researchinto the campaign of anxiety and offer new Leslie Townes Hope for those stick out from the disorder .
" Now that we ’ve found these cells in the hippocampus , it opens up Modern country for search treatment ideas that we did n’t know existed before,“saidJessica Jimenez , precede author and MD / Ph.D. student at Columbia University ’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons .
