The Brain and Fear

The Brain and Fear

Just before Halloween is a great time to consider - what is fear anyway? Do you remember the last time you felt really afraid? Is it innate or is it learned? What’s really going on within your brain that makes you afraid, and is there anything you can do about it?

But fear is not an emotion at the ready all the time – it is only experienced when something is perceived as threatening. And situations perceived as threatening are based on previous fear-inducing encounters, so require memory. Jelena Radulovic, MD, PhD, Einstein College of Medicine, studies the neuroscience of fear and will share with us how researchers study it in the lab and what it means for us humans. She’ll explain how animals shape their fear responses first through brain development, and then through experiences of their inner and outer world. But what if you don’t know something is threatening, would you be afraid? Dr. Radulovic will explain for us how this happens at the level of brain cells and networks.

We promise it will be non-scary but memorable!

Dr. Radulovic is a Professor of Neuroscience at Einstein College of Medicine in NY where she is Director of the Psychiatry Research Institute at Montefiore Einstein (PRIME).

Host or Publisher Illinois Science Council