This book focuses on the latest neuroscience findings about the neurobiology of fear and anxiety. Fear is a highly conserved and evolutionarily adaptive response to threats in the environment. Decades of research have identified the basic underlying neurocircuitry of fear and cutting-edge methods used in both animal models and humans continue to refine and shape our understanding of fear. While fear, when expressed in the appropriate context, is adaptive, excessive responses to threatening cues and contexts and anxiety are maladaptive. Fear-based disorders and anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and impairing. These disorders often begin in childhood, highlighting the importance of genetics, early environment, and risk factors. The contributors to this book are international experts in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology. Collectively, they provide diverse perspectives on the neurobiology of fear and anxiety. The invited contributions are organized to provide a critical review of the recent advances in the neuroscience research and will span the continuum from basic to clinical neuroscience with representation across species, development, and disorders. The sections of this book will a) review the basic mechanisms underlying fear and anxiety, b) describe the factors that contribute to anxiety, including developmental stage, risk factors, sex differences, and genetics, c) elucidate how treatments work and describe novel treatments, and d) demonstrate the role of anxiety in other disorders including autism, substance use disorders, and schizophrenia. This critical and comprehensive collection of chapters will provide a review on the neuroscience of fear and anxiety that will be highly relevant for both scientists and clinicians interested in the brain mechanisms and associated psychopathologies related to fear and anxiety.
