Neural Circuit and Genomic Approaches to PTSD and Fear-Related Disorders

Kerry J. Ressler, MD, PhD, presented “Neural Circuit and Genomic Approaches to PTSD and Fear-Related Disorders”, where he discussed advancements in approaches for researching and treating fear-related disorders.

Fear-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder manifest in ways that are consistent with an uncontrollable state of fear. Their development involves heredity, previous sensitizing experiences, association of aversive events with previous neutral stimuli, and inability to inhibit or extinguish fear after it is chronic and disabling. This webinar highlighted recent progress in fear learning and memory, neural circuits mediating the fear response in animal models and humans, and differential genetic susceptibility to disorders of fear. Dr. Ressler further explored how these findings are being applied to the understanding, treatment and possible prevention of fear disorders.

Promising advances are being translated from basic science to the clinic, including approaches to distinguish risk versus resilience before trauma exposure, methods to interfere with fear development during memory consolidation after a trauma, and techniques to inhibit fear reconsolidation and to enhance extinction of chronic fear. Cutting edge approaches to understand the genetic and epigenetic regulation at a cell-type specific level within amygdala, medial prefrontal, and hippocampal circuitry as it relates to fear extinction will also be discussed. It is hoped that this new knowledge will translate to more successful, neuroscientifically informed and rationally designed approaches to treatment and prevention of disorders of fear regulation.