Scientists Uncover New Clues About Brain Function In Human Behavior (July 13, 2005) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a genetically controlled brain mechanism responsible for social behavior in ... > full story

Studying Brain Activity Could Aid Diagnosis Of Social Phobia (January 19, 2006) -- People suffering generalised social phobia experience increased brain activity when confronted with threatening faces or frightening social situations, new research ... > full story

Area Of Brain Found To Play Key Role In Initiating Memory Storage (February 6, 2001) -- Flee, freeze or fight. A response to a threat is based on experience and memory. Now scientists have discovered that an area of the brain, the amygdala, which was thought to store painful and ... > full story

Brain Chemical Plays Critical Role In Drinking And Anxiety (August 8, 2006) -- A brain protein that sustains nerve cells also regulates anxiety and alcohol consumption in rats, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago ... > full story

Loss Of Fear Factor Makes Timid Mouse Bold (November 21, 2005) -- Researchers have identified a fear factor -- a protein essential for triggering both the innate fears that animals are born with and fears that arise later in life. The finding suggests new ... > full story

Researchers Find Fewer Neurons In The Amygdala Of Males With Autism (July 19, 2006) -- Researchers at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute have discovered that the brains of males with autism have fewer neurons in the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion ... > full story

Memories Of Fear -- Researchers Discover How They Work (December 29, 1999) -- Scientists have identified the brain circuit where memories of fear are evaluated and expressed. Their discovery, published recently in the British journal Nature, points the way toward possible ... > full story

Autistic Preschoolers Have Larger-Than-Normal Brains, Can't Distinguish Emotions From Facial Photographs (December 5, 2001) -- Preschool-age children with autism exhibit no difference in brain activity when they are shown photographs of faces displaying different emotions, and their brains are larger than normal, according ... > full story

Brain's Fear Center Likely Shrinks In Autism's Most Severely Socially Impaired (December 6, 2006) -- The brain's fear hub likely becomes abnormally small in the most severely socially impaired males with autism spectrum disorders. Teens and young men who were slowest at distinguishing emotional from ... > full story

How Brain Gives Special Resonance To Emotional Memories (June 10, 2004) -- If the emotional memory of a traumatic car accident or the thrill of first love are remembered with a special resonance, it is because they engage different brain structures than do normal memories, ... > full story

Scientists Uncover New Mechanism For The Amygdala In Fear Recognition (January 7, 2005) -- A look of fear on another person's face is instantly recognizable. The split-second ability of the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped structure deep in the brain, distinguishes fear in facial ... > full story

Amygdala -- The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain's medial temporal lobe. Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala ... > full article

Temporal lobe -- The temporal lobes are part of the cerebrum. They lie at the sides of the brain, beneath the lateral or Sylvian fissure. Seen in profile, the human brain looks something like a boxing glove. The ... > full article

Limbic system -- The limbic system is the collective name for structures in the human brain involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory. It affects motivation and is more active in ... > full article

Hypothalamus -- In mammals, the hypothalamus is a region of the brain located below the thalamus, forming the major portion of the ventral region of the diencephalon and functioning to regulate certain metabolic ... > full article

Occipital lobe -- The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, located in the interior portion of the occipital lobe at the calcarine sulcus ... > full article

Anger -- Anger is a term for the emotional aspect of aggression, as a basic aspect of the stress response in animals in which a perceived aggravating stimulus "provokes" a counterresponse which is likewise ... > full article

Anxiety -- Anxiety is a complex combination of negative emotion that includes fear, apprehension and worry, and is often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain and/or shortness of ... > full article

Visual cortex -- Visual cortex is the term applied to both the primary visual cortex and upstream visual cortical areas also known as extrastriate cortical areas. The visual cortex occupies about one third of the ... > full article

Rapid eye movement -- Rapid eye movement (REM) is the stage of sleep characterized by rapid saccadic movements of the eyes. During this stage, the activity of the brain's neurons is quite similar to that during waking ... > full article

Amnesia -- Amnesia (or amnaesia in Commonwealth English) is a condition in which memory is disturbed. The causes of amnesia are organic or functional. Organic causes include damage to the brain, through trauma ... > full article