1. SOLVING ANXIETY Joseph LeDoux

2. 20 million Americans (15%) suffer from anxiety disorders Anxiety exacerbates all other mental and medical problems Economic cost: > $50 billion per year (0.4 GDP) Investing in the prevention and treatment of anxiety, especially in children, is the most efficient way to improve the health and well- being of our society How Do We Prevent and Treat Anxiety? We go to the source.

3. Fig 3 NEURAL CIRCUIT AMYGDALA THREATENING STIMULUS FEAR RESPONSES MUSCLE TENSION BLOOD PRESSURE RESPIRATION Auditory Cortex Auditory Thalamus CGLHPVN ANSFREEZINGHORMONES LA AMYGDALA CE cs Somatosensory Cortex Somatosens Thalamus us CS PathwayUS Pathway B ITC SYNAPSE MOLECULAR MECHANISMS tone tone+shock tone Fear Conditioning FIGHT FLIGHT RESPONSE

4. Present and Future Goals Erasing traumatic memory Finding neuronal markers of individual differences in fear Discovering new ways to help children and adults reduce anxiety so that anxiety disorders don’t develop drugs that eliminate memory in amygdala after remembering Structural, physiological, and genetic correlates of extreme fear in the amygdala Dampening amygdala activity by stress reduction techniques (controlled breathing)- shuts down fight-flight response Drugs or gene therapy that targets the amygdala

5. The Emotional Brain Institute a research team focused on amygdala fear and anxiety NYU Washington SquareNYU Langone Medical Center NY State Nathan Kline Institute