MIT Finds Cure For Fear

Doom con runs away writes "MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice, according to an article in the journal Nature Neuroscience. They did this by inhibiting a kinase, an enzyme that change proteins, called Cdk5, which facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context."

Comments

Re:uh oh...

[dotpavan]

yes, isnt fear supposed to be an in-built mechanism to prevent us from putting ourselves in dangerous situations (in which others have suffered bad consequences), just like comedy tells us that everything is OK with a false alarm like situation ["So what I'm arguing is, laughter is nature's false alarm. Why is this useful from an evolutionary standpoint? So what you are doing with this rhythmic stocatto sound of laughter is informing your kin who share your genes, don't waste your precious resources rushing to this person's aid, it's a false alarm everything is OK. OK, so it's nature's OK signal."]

Crippling Fear is a sickness!

[RingDev]

And I share the concerns about the abuse of this potential drug.

But there are mental illnesses that deal with crippling fears, where extreme fear of seemingly insignificant things can prevent a person from interacting with society in a meaningful way. For those people, this drug could bring relief, and a chance for a normal life. But control is paramount, and I'd need to see a LOT of clinical trial and years in the open market before it gets into military use. Fear will keep you alive on a battle field, but crippling fear will get your unit killed. Not only that, but being in a war zone isn't 24x7 guns blazing and shells falling. It's minutes of near death experiences followed by minutes, hours, days, even weeks of no activity. Knowing that at any second an explosion could rip you to shreds, or small arms fire could light you up. That is the stress that kills, the constant fear tearing at the back of your mind. Some people have even described the start of an attack as a relief, as they no longer do they have to sit in anticipation of the attack. If this drug could help prevent soldier from locking up in high stress moments, and relieve the pressure from the tedium of war, then I could have a solid benefit for the military.

If on the other hand, it takes away their fear of bullets, reprisal, and other control mechanisms... then it is nothing we want to give to anyone with a gun.

-Rick

Re:How useful is fear, really?

[A beautiful mind]

Gut response is fast. Thinking is slow. When you're dead to react rationally, it doesn't help much. Yeah, it might misfire 9 times out of 10. That one occasion saves your life when it is not a misfire.

The "breakthrough" is about blocking fear not about replacing it with another mechanism.

On a related did you know that we live around half a second in the PAST? That is the delay of the mind. Our brain fakes the memories so we don't notice it practically, but there is a reason why subconscious or gut responses exist.

Re:Bzzt! Wrong.

[Hijacked Public]

Similarly, one has to be taught to fear certain aspects of combat I'm not sure about that. When I was in Somalia (Marines) there were people who, on patrols, became nearly paralyzed with fear at the sound of distant gunfire without ever having seen the result themselves. And then there were people who, while we were taking direct fire and after having seen those beside them take hits, never raised their voice when they spoke to me.

Some dangerous things are kind of nebulous. Electricty, heat, germs. It took mankind a good long while to trace illness to invisible bugs, so it doesn't suprise me that the concept of them being dangerous would be difficult to develop in the mind of a child.

But associating loud noises with a negative result is more tangible. I'd think that while it might not be entirely innate, it is probably learned early enough in life by a wide enough variety of people to be nearly inescapable.