FEAR, PLEASURE, AND HOW THEY TRAVEL TO MEMORY.

mudcat36 (62)in #busy • 6 years ago

For most of us the experience of fear is something we do not enjoy. We tend to avoid panic and terror unless we feel like we have a margin of control. I.e sky diving, bungee jumping, roller coasters, scary movies, etc. But it has been discovered that fear and pleasure actually are both laid down in the same area of the brain, though they travel different pathways.

Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University ran a series of experiments where he gave mice things like cocaine to induce a pleasurable sensation, he also gave others uncomfortable electric shocks to induce fear.... sucks to be a lab rat eh?.... After doing this the mice were terminated and fatty materials in these poor little fellows brains were washed away making them transparent. Using dyes to highlight recently active cells Deisseroth was able to map out which neuron networks were involved in each experience.

What he discovered was memories of pleasure and fear were both laid out in the medial prefrontal cortex. Different sensations but stored in the the same place in our brains. However it turns out that the routes fear and pleasure travel to get there are completely different and those neural pathways themselves lead to different areas of the brain. The hope behind this research is that someday we will be able to use certain medications and trans cranial stimulation to target pathways in the prefrontal cortex to treat mental health disorders.

There is a downside to this approach as it runs an extreme risk of impacting the way we feel pleasure. But as research continues down this route we can rest assured new medications will soon be on the market.... especially as Karl Diesseroth is a recipient of NARSAD grant. NARSAD is a "philanthropic" organisation who fund research into treatments for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety disorders, eating disorders....basically all the chart toppers big pharmaceutical industries are doing such a great job in tackling and providing solutions to. (note sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm) But with suicide as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and over 30 million Americans on antidepressants we can rest easy knowing that a solution is in the offing... Soon there will be a pill out there that genuinely will make us happy and studying the neural path ways when something scares the shit out of us or something makes us feel pleasure may hold the key... Noble researchers are shocking mice and giving them blow to find new ways to help us lead happier more fulfilled lives.... (again sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm) Well, this is the hope that Dr. Karl Diesseroth has stated he has and I'm sure GSK and Pfizers do to. Haven't big pharmaceutical companies always the consumers best interest at heart?...

Well guy that's it for now, this seemed like a fun topic to blog about so I figured I'd share. Thanks for taking the time to read and looking forward to checking out your content. Steem on. :)