Fear Learning

Professor Karim Nader explains that fear learning, which is mediated by the amygdala, is different from other forms of learning.

Fear learning differs from other types of learning in a sense that how the system that mediates it is organized. So the system that mediates fear learning is called the amygdala and it receives sensory information about things that happen in the environment and things that are very emotionally salient. It is wired-up so that when it detects or learns that something in the environment is dangerous it engages a lot of these responses that are hard-wired in our brains and have evolved to save our lives. It is different in the sense of how the amygdala has been wired to mediate fear learning.