The Root of Fear and Anxiety

Whether it’s clowns, air travel, or public speaking, mostly we learn to be afraid. Even so, our brains are hardwired for fear — it helps us identify and avoid threats to our safety.

The key node in our fear wiring is the amygdala, a paired, almond-shaped structure deep within the brain involved in emotion and memory. This image shows a cross-section of the amygdala of a young mouse, with individual neurons stained in blue. Prior to staining, the mouse completed an anxiety-provoking task which activated a small group of neurons (pink dots). Studying how the amygdala develops helps scientists understand the neural underpinnings of fear, as well as what goes wrong in anxiety disorders and phobias.