mGluRs are present in all regions of the brain involved in learning, memory, anxiety, and the perception of pain.
But when responders were offered an unfair proposal, another part of the brain activated, the anterior insula, which is part of the emotional wiring of the brain, involved in making us feel anxiety, pain, even hunger.
The hippocampus was chosen as the source for the mRNA for this study as this is a key area of the brain involved in behaviors such as learning and memory, anxiety and aggression (Fernandes et al. 2004).
There was a very clear dissociation between the positivity-related and the anxiety-related regions of the brain involved in each choice.
They found that the larger the amygdala and the stronger its connections with other parts of the brain involved in perception and regulation of emotion, the greater the amount of anxiety a child was experiencing.
Serotonin is another a neurotransmitter in the brain involved in a wide variety of brain functions, such as mood control, regulation of sleep and body temperature, anxiety, drug abuse, food intake, and sexual behavior (Walther and Bader 2003).
At the central nervous level, the brain structures involved in anxiety in animals, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, have been implicated in both memory processes and anxiety.
Instead, the specific acute activation of Cav1.3 induces depression-like behaviors (8) and leads to activation of brain regions involved in anxiety and fear circuits (21).
They determined that neurons in part of the rodents' medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in emotional processing in animals and people, had been firing often and rapidly in recent weeks, as had neurons in other, linked parts of the brain, including the amygdala, which is known to handle feelings of fear and anxiety.
John Cryan and Gerard Clarke of the APC Microbiome Institute are particularly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain structures involved in anxiety-like behaviours.
