The brain learns fear.
We study how it lets go.
The Emotion & Memory Systems Laboratory maps the brain circuits underlying stress, fear & safety — unlocking new insight into adaptive behavior and mental health.
- Fear conditioning
- Extinction & recovery
- Memory & relapse
- Stress & PTSD
- Fear conditioning
Fear is learned, quieted — and can return
A frightening experience is easy to learn and hard to unlearn. Therapy can calm that fear — but a new memory of safety is fragile, and fear can return. Understanding why is the heart of our work.
1 · Traumatic experience creates fear memory
A frightening event is quickly bound into a lasting fear memory.2 · Exposure therapy promotes recovery
Safe, repeated exposure teaches the brain to feel safe again.3 · Fear relapses in a stressful world
In a new place or under new stress, the recovered fear can return.↺ Click any stage to move the timeline
Three regions, one conversation
Emotional memories emerge from a dialogue between the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex — with the thalamic nucleus reuniens tying them together. Tap a region to explore.
The fear network
These structures don't work alone. Our lab traces how signals move between them to control whether a fear memory is expressed or suppressed — and how that breaks down in PTSD.
Three fronts against pathological fear
Each project answers a different piece of the puzzle. Hover to read more.
Contextual Control of Extinction
We study how the nucleus reuniens coordinates activity in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus to keep fear at bay.
Stress & Extinction Learning
Trauma makes fear resistant to extinction. We study how stress activates the amygdala to disable the prefrontal circuits that therapy relies upon.
Manipulating Fear and Extinction Engrams
What if traumatic memories could be erased? Using activity-dependent viral tools, we capture and attenuate the neuronal ensembles that hold a fear memory.
From the lab bench to the lives of trauma survivors
Post-traumatic stress disorder resists extinction — the very mechanism therapy relies on — which is why patients relapse. By uncovering the circuits that inhibit pathological fear, we aim to make exposure therapies more durable.
Science, people & place
Three ways forward.
We map how the brain learns and unlearns fear — turning that insight into hope for people with anxiety and trauma disorders.