Fear of predators causes PTSD-like changes in brains of wild animals

AUGUST 7, 2019

by University of Western Ontario

Fear can be measured in the brain and fearful life-threatening events can leave quantifiable long-lasting traces in the neural circuitry of the brain with enduring effects on behaviour, as shown most clearly in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A new study by Western University demonstrates that the fear predators inspire can leave long-lasting traces in the neural circuitry of wild animals and induce enduringly fearful behaviour, comparable to effects seen in PTSD research.

The findings of this study, led by Western University's Liana Zanette, Scott MacDougall-Shackleton and Michael Clinchy, were published today in Scientific Reports.

For the first time, Zanette, her students and collaborators experimentally demonstrated that the effects predator exposure has on the neural circuitry of fear in wild animals can persist beyond the period of the immediate 'fight or flight' response and instead can remain measurable more than a week later, in animals exposed in the interim to natural environmental and social conditions.

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Scientists Erase the Memories of Sleeping Mice

Researchers at Stanford claim they've figured out how to erase the traumatic memories of mice while they sleep bringing them one step closer to their goal of ending PTSD for humans. Apparently a prescription memory-eraser could even be on the way. Are we closer to an Eternal Sunshine moment than we think?

The conventional treatment for stress and anxiety caused by traumatic events can be grueling for the patient, barbaric, even. They've simply got to recall the drama over and over and over in front of a shrink until, eventually, they learn how to deal with it—and there's no guarantee the patent won't relapse.

Nature reports the research of a Stanford team that found a way to replicate this therapy passively in sleeping mice. First, the researchers trained mice to fear the smell of jasmine by exposing them to the smell and then zapping them electricity. Once the mice were thoroughly traumatized, the researchers went about un-traumatizing the mice in their sleep.

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