10 March 2011 - Anxious Meeces

It's no secret that I love mice.  I loooove mice.  Mice are amazing, useful, and interesting creatures.  It's always nice to see research done with them because it almost always directly applies itself to understanding them better, and not just whatever was being researched.  I am always game for learning more about mice.

So anyways - scientists found that while mice are normally very hesitant about wandering out into open spaces where they could be nabbed by a predator, this fear can actually be manipulated.  They targeted specific connections in the amygdalae of the brain (or between them, I believe), which when increased in activity caused the mice to become bolder and venture out.  When dampened, however, the mice became more anxious and stuck more frequently to the walls.  Basically, controlling this portion of the brain's activity allowed researchers to adjust the amount of anxiety the mice experienced.

Tye_Deisseroth_Supplementary Movie from Deisseroth Lab on Vimeo.

The implication of course is that anxiety in people can one day be similarly treated.  We're still quite a long way from that, but it's an interesting observation that will definitely lend itself to the study of anxiety, which in people is currently extremely difficult to treat!



-Miss Mouse



References and Links:
Mouse Braaaaaiiinns:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/70833/title/Anxiety_switch_makes_mice_shy_no_more