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Functional anatomy of neural circuits regulating fear and extinction

When an animal experiences fear in the presence of threatening stimuli, it can help it to survive in an adverse environment. However, exaggerated fear may result in anxiety disorders, which impairs normal functioning. Although fear can be reduced or even removed by repeated presentations of fear-eliciting stimuli in a safe situation, such extinction of fear is neither permanent nor complete. Fear can renew because extinction does not erase existing memories, but rather creates new ones. It ...