The amygdala and emotion: a view through fear

Abstract While the amygdala has long been known to be involved in emotional processes, studies of fear conditioning have provided the most detailed understanding of the amygdala’s role in emotion to date. In this chapter, the neural pathways and mechanisms underlying the amygdala’s role in the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear are explored. The relationship of work on fear conditioning to other areas of research, such as instrumental fear learning and memory modulation, is also discussed. Although the review focuses on studies of experimental animals, recent work on the human amygdala is also considered.