Brain Behaviour

Researchers in Europe and the US wanted to find out [blank] what happens to our brain when we find ourselves stunned with fright in the hope of better understanding how fear interplays with human anxiety disorders. For the first time, they [blank] and linked three parts of the brain responsible for freezing behaviors: the amygdala, ventrolateral periaqueductal grey region, and magnocellular nucleus. Mice are [blank] lab animals where it comes to anxiety and fear experiments. When a mouse is scared, its defensive behaviors range from freezing, attacking, risking, or fleeing the scene. How a mouse acts [blank] on variables such as access to escape routes or the level of threat faced. So Andreas Luthi at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland and colleagues from Europe and the US observed brain activity in mice placed in frightening situations to [blank] the brain circuits [blank] for freezing behaviors. In particular, the researchers [blank] to learn more about a part of the brain called the ventrolateral periaqueductal grey region, which was believed to [blank] some part in a mouse's instinct to freeze or flee.