Article: "MIT finds cure for fear"

[Delicieuxz]

http://pressesc.com/01184528191_cure_for_fear

MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice, according to an article in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory hope that their work could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer each year from persistent, debilitating fears - including hundreds of soldiers returning from conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Inhibiting a kinase, an enzyme that change proteins, called Cdk5 facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context, Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and colleagues showed.

Conversely, the learned fear persisted when the kinase's activity was increased in the hippocampus, the brain's center for storing memories, the scientists found.

Cdk5, paired with the protein p35, helps new brain cells, or neurons, form and migrate to their correct positions during early brain development, and the MIT researchers looked at how Cdk5 affects the ability to form and eliminate fear-related memories.

"Remarkably, inhibiting Cdk5 facilitated extinction of learned fear in mice," Tsai said. "This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia."

Emotional disorders such as post-traumatic stress and panic attacks stem from the inability of the brain to stop experiencing the fear associated with a specific incident or series of incidents.

For some people, upsetting memories of traumatic events do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time, severely affecting their lives.

A study conducted by the Army in 2004 found that one in eight soldiers returning from Iraq reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the National Center for PTSD in the United States, around eight percent of the population will have PTSD symptoms at some point in their lives. Some 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year, the center reports.

In the current research, genetically engineered mice received mild foot shocks in a certain environment and were re-exposed to the same environment without the foot shock.

The team found that mice with increased levels of Cdk5 activity had more trouble letting go of the memory of the foot shock and continued to freeze in fear.

The reverse was also true: in mice whose Cdk5 activity was inhibited, the bad memory of the shocks disappeared when the mice learned that they no longer needed to fear the environment where the foot shocks had once occurred.

"In our study, we employ mice to show that extinction of learned fear depends on counteracting components of a molecular pathway involving the protein kinase Cdk5," Tsai concluded. "We found that Cdk5 activity prevents extinction, at least in part by negatively affecting the activity of another key kinase."

[Blade Nightflame]

Bloody interesting.

Now where's our anti-cancer?

[Micki!]

Sounds like we'll soon see human robots... :o
Only need a Anti Emotion drug...

It sounds interesting though, for the purpose of war experiences
But i can see it happen before war too... so that soldiers aren't gonna panic i extreme situations, which may cost them thier lives when not being able to control themselves

But erh, if it was a memory thing..? Then i guess it has to happen first, before one can be anti-afraid of certain situations

[Phait]

Perfect for people afraid of balloons (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH8UZJ1yMdY), cotton balls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G45s4GJslGI), pickles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSCotdOh5WY) and peaches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Az10dr0xZY).

[Rider]

Only need a Anti Emotion drug...

hehe, Equilibrium (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/) anyone?

But erh, if it was a memory thing..? Then i guess it has to happen first, before one can be anti-afraid of certain situations

Yeah, and if I read the article right, that's the whole point, it's not terminating all fears, just disconnecting fear related to certain memories. I just hope they fully test it's (possible) effects on humans before they stamp 'safe to use' all over it.

the human psyche is a delicate thing you know...

[DavoX]

Will this go against the fear of approaching a lady? Man the world is gonna be full of pick up artists :D

[Daedolon]

Very interesting read. This will be very useful for people having panic attacts attacks or common stress from things they're afraid of.

[Dave-ros]

That'd be useful for me, as I have a similar fear to Phait's, of looking up at the sky and feeling like I'm gonna fall off the world. Unfortunately I can't trace it to one particular memory, so it might be more of an irrational thing :o

I also found a better cure: on Saturday night I was at Brighton beach, looking out at the sea and feeling the usual fear (magnified by the fact that all the lights were behind me, so the sea/sky looked more like a yawning chasm)... and do you know what took my mind off it? Naked chicks in the sea, and my housemate wading out among them fully clothed while shouting "Giggity giggity!" The best cure is distraction :hhg:

[Phait]

Haha ^

Well that "fear" isnt a valid fear, it's like a "what if" fear, but nothing I'm real worried about.

[wayskobfssae]

Thx1138?

[Kalki]

Serenity?

hehe, Equilibrium (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/) anyone?

Yeah, and if I read the article right, that's the whole point, it's not terminating all fears, just disconnecting fear related to certain memories. I just hope they fully test it's (possible) effects on humans before they stamp 'safe to use' all over it.

the human psyche is a delicate thing you know...

Yeah imagine if it works wrong(or get overdosed) and you lose your fear of AIDS and other STDs, of speeding in cars, of the repercussions to committing violent crimes, etc. I feel a hollywood movie coming on.

[thefly]

So the people at MIT discovered booze?

[wayskobfssae]

Yeah imagine if it works wrong(or get overdosed) and you lose your fear of AIDS and other STDs, of speeding in cars, of the repercussions to committing violent crimes, etc.

Most humans already have no fear of the things you listed. :p

Regarding the classic "Cure for Cancer" request, I must say it's amazing that we still haven't figured that out, yet we're now hacking the human brain in such a variety of ways, which has always been heralded as being more infinitely complex than any other aspect of the human body.

[BillyD]

So the people at MIT discovered booze?
:D They may be a little behind the ball on this one.

I wonder what they are using as an inhibitory drug? I was watching a show where some doctors were experimenting with using beta blockers after a particularly stressful event with the hypothesis that it would prevent the memory from being implanted too strongly and thus also preventing PSD. I wonder if this is something similar or is the same thing?

[Opus131]

yet we're now hacking the human brain in such a variety of ways

To my knowledge, the majority of the 'brain hacking' drugs we have today are decades old, and few of them have been developed from the ground up to fulfill their intended role. Indeed, scientists have no clear idea of how most of those chemicals work, or why they work at all.

Doesn't seem to me like they really have such a firm grip over the human brain. Their attitude so far has been that of 'discovering' mind altering drug suited for therapeutic uses and then release them hoping they are not going to kill anybody. Great plan, let me tell you.

[Mudsling3]

A cure for mice fear? sounds like there will be a best way to eliminate mice once and for all :D

[ShadeEX]

Bloody interesting.


You got that right.. But also not so good..

I mean if I got cured of Fear I might end up getting myself killed..

Example: (Made by my dad when I told him about this)

Say you bump into a gang, with weapons and you're cured of fear.. Could you then maybe do something stupid that would get you killed..

[avatar_58]

Very interesting read. This will be very useful for people having panic attacts attacks or common stress from things they're afraid of.

Anxiety and fear aren't really the same thing.

[wayskobfssae]

http://www.no-fear.at/nfshop/aufnaeher.jpg

This is gonna be making a comeback...

[ShakeItBaby]

A cure for mice fear? sounds like there will be a best way to eliminate mice once and for all :D

Or create a breed of KILLER MICE! :p

[Commando Nukem]

how ironic, a cure for fear... It scares the shit out of me. How about improving the immune system, or combating actual diseases?

[Simon Charles]

Will this go against the fear of approaching a lady? Man the world is gonna be full of pick up artists :D

Even without fear of rejection, you'll still strike out if you're a douchebag who can't pull off the lines right. :D

[wayskobfssae]

how ironic, a cure for fear... It scares the shit out of me. How about improving the immune system, or combating actual diseases?

Don't you see, that's the beauty of it... we won't be afraid of disease anymore. They're saving themselves several millenia of work.

[Dave-ros]

Simon, you're right -- but at least this means non-douchebags who would otherwise never score through fear of rejection will actually get the chance at last, thereby improving the gene pool ;)

And ways, many a true word spoken in jest: part of recovering from disease (or injury) is psychological, i.e. thinking positive, so maybe this fear-killing drug will have an application there?

[FireFly]

Even without any fear, surely we'd still have emotional states, desires, motivations? You'd still care about not dying, on the basis that being alive is superior to not being alive! Avoiding dangerous situations would involve rational reflection rather than instinctive urges.

And I think the concept of 'enlightenment' put forth by religions such as Buddhism is in some sense a similar kind of state – being so disconnected from yourself that you simply observe, without fear or judgement.

[Delicieuxz]

Yeah, I agree. The article doesn't say that mice suddenly didn't care about being shocked, but that they didn't second guess the new reality of no threat of being chocked again.

I don't think that fear is a valid emotion, but that it is a distortion of other thoughts and emotions. It's like splicing valid thoughts and emotions at a junction where a person decides to halt their progress, and the result is this stasis of half-thoughts and half-emotions that they've afraid to complete and move ahead with.
I think an absence of fear would launch the world into a rapid progression of everything good.

[motionblur]

So ... what if I'm afraid to test this drug?

[DavoX]

Damn you and your stupid paradox! :D

[The Red Slaughter]

how ironic, a cure for fear... It scares the shit out of me. How about improving the immune system, or combating actual diseases?

Fear = Survival Instincts. Usually. But THEY did keep us alive. Fearing animals, we built cities. Fearing invasions, we built walls. And so on.

[Mr.Fibbles]

A cure for "fear" is not a cure; it is a mind altering substance and will further destroy the human race.

As The Red Slaughter mentioned, fear is an instinct. You get afraid in situations which are hazardous to your health and thus react in a way which conserves your life.

[Delicieuxz]

I don't agree. We didn't advance society out of fear but out of interest, desire and ambition.
Not being afraid of death doesn't make you not wanting of life. I don't think you can attribute any successes of humanity to fear, only failures and prejudices.
Same with animals. It isn't fear that keeps a bear from walking off a cliff, it's understanding.
No Fear = Uninhibited Understanding.

To say that fear keeps us from death is to suggest that death is the thing we want most. With or without fear I'm personally still going to want life and a million other good things, and I will have much better perception to navigate myself towards those things, to spot dangers and avoid them, if fears is removed from the picture.

[Kalki]

I don't agree. We didn't advance society out of fear but out of interest, desire and ambition.
Wouldn't fear help get people through the rough patches in life before they got to realizing their desires and ambitions? Maybe what keeps the emo teenager (and many adults) from embracing death is fear. Everybody at one point has gone through a state of depression, sometimes the severe variety where life seems unbearable. Perhaps fear was what kept them from slashing their wrists. And that's just one angle.

Most religions are founded on the efficacy of fear and most humans on the planet live their lives by them. But certain types of extreme traumatic fear, we can do without, which is what the cure claims to eradicate. But I wonder if that fear has its uses too.

[wayskobfssae]

Wouldn't fear help get people through the rough patches in life before they got to realizing their desires and ambitions? Maybe what keeps the emo teenager (and many adults) from embracing death is fear. Everybody at one point has gone through a state of depression, sometimes the severe variety where life seems unbearable. Perhaps fear was what kept them from slashing their wrists. And that's just one angle.

Heh, funny thing is this is what was going through my mind in Delic's post. If everyone started chemically-eliminating fear in their lives, I think we'd see a rather noticable increase in suicides.

Increased crime might be another big one, if the fear of being caught/punished went byebye.

I think more plainly, the question that needs to be answered before we all have little personal tanks dripping this stuff constantly into our bloodstream, is: at our most subconscious level, is our survival driven by our will to live, or our fear of death?

[Dead Chief]

I think people go forward because...well they want to go forward, not because they fear something. I build my house but not because I fear living on the street, but because...well I want to build a house :p .

[Commando Nukem]

I think people go forward because...well they want to go forward, not because they fear something. I build my house but not because I fear living on the street, but because...well I want to build a house :p .

People who don't commit suicide, but talk about and and are depressed don't do it because they fear the unknown, namely death.

Fear keeps people alive, and (helps) keep people out of trouble.

[Dead Chief]

And what does that has to do with my post? I'm talking about reaching new technologies, making new laws, etc.