Scientists from the Center for Brain Research at MedUni Vienna are investigating how anxiety is processed and the flow of information in the brain in general: In a study, which has now been published in the leading magazine Science, the team from the Department of Cognitive Neurobiology, led by Stephane Ciocchi and Thomas Klausberger, has managed to show how anxiety is coded by the neurons of the hippocampus and that this information is not then sent directly to the brain's fear center but rather to the prefrontal cortex, the brain's control center, for further processing and for decision-making.
Generally, the hippocampus, the switching point in the brain's limbic system "transmits" information about memory and emotions to many other regions of the brain. According to the researchers, this can happen in two different ways: "Either like a radio station broadcasting its program and each person taking the bit that interests them, or like the post with specific addressees for different bits of information," explains Klausberger, Head of the Department of Cognitive Neurobiology.
[For more of this story go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...ty-brain-center.html]
Comments (0)