Journal article
Fear expression is suppressed by tyrosine administration
Scientific Reports, Vol.9(1), Art. 16073
2019
Abstract
Animal studies have demonstrated that catecholamines regulate several aspects of fear conditioning. In humans, however, pharmacological manipulations of the catecholaminergic system have been scarce, and their primary focus has been to interfering with catecholaminergic activity after fear acquisition or expression had taken place, using L-Dopa, primarily, as catecholaminergic precursor. Here, we sought to determine if putative increases in presynaptic dopamine and norepinephrine by tyrosine administered before conditioning could affect fear expression. Electrodermal activity (EDA) of 46 healthy participants (24 placebo, 22 tyrosine) was measured in an instructed fear task. Results showed that tyrosine abolished fear expression compared to placebo. Importantly, tyrosine did not affect EDA responses to the aversive stimulus (UCS) or alter participants’ mood. Therefore, the effect of tyrosine on fear expression cannot be attributed to these factors. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that the catecholaminergic system influences fear expression in humans.
Details
- Title
- Fear expression is suppressed by tyrosine administration
- Authors/Creators
- A. Soranzo (Author/Creator) - Sheffield Hallam UniversityL. Aquili (Author/Creator)
- Publication Details
- Scientific Reports, Vol.9(1), Art. 16073
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Identifiers
- 991005542873407891
- Copyright
- © 2019 The Authors.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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Source: InCites
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- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.5 Neuroscience
- 1.5.1090 Fear Conditioning
- Web Of Science research areas
- Neurosciences
- ESI research areas
- Neuroscience & Behavior