What's on archive 2012

Lecture: Genetics of Fear

18 Jan 2012-18 Jan 2012, 15:00-16:00, Seminar rooms A & B, SGDP Centre, Denmark Hill Campus

Event series: SGDP guest lecture
School / area: Institute of Psychiatry
Department: MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre
Location: Denmark Hill Campus
Location map: Denmark Hill: location
Speaker: Dr Andrew Holmes
Speaker institution: National Institute of Health, USA

: Psychological trauma and stress produce lasting detrimental effects and clinical conditions such as PTSD in some individuals but not others.  Factors underlying such individual differences are not fully understood, but there is likely a major genetic component.  The mouse provides a uniquely powerful model species for parsing genetic and environmental influences on stress- and fear-related phenotypes in the laboratory.  Using fear extinction as a readily quantifiable, translational assay for the maintenance of fear behavior, we have identified a genetic mouse strain with a profound deficit in fear extinction, coupled with a PTSD-like bias towards perceiving ambiguous stimuli as threatening.

Contact name: Isabel Sinha
Email: Isabel.Sinha@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 0871

 

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