Sensing Fear: Fast and Precise Threat Evaluation in Human Sensory Cortex

Authors

Wen Li
Andreas Keil

Publication Date

4-1-2023

Journal

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Abstract

Animal models of threat processing have evolved beyond the amygdala to incorporate a distributed neural network. In human research, evidence has intensified in recent years to challenge the canonical threat circuitry centered on the amygdala, urging revision of threat conceptualization. A strong surge of research into threat processing in the sensory cortex in the past decade has generated particularly useful insights to inform the reconceptualization. Here, synthesizing findings from both animal and human research, we highlight sensitive, specific, and adaptable threat representations in the sensory cortex, arising from experience-based sculpting of sensory coding networks. We thus propose that the human sensory cortex can drive smart (fast and precise) threat evaluation, producing threat-imbued sensory afferents to elicit network-wide threat responses.

Keywords

sensory coding, threat representations, threat conditioning, associative plasticity, Long-term storage, long-term memory

Comments

This article has been corrected. See Trends Cogn Sci. 2023 April 29; : .

PMID: 36732175