Review abstract
Nature Neuroscience 10, 1095 - 1102 (2007)
Published online: 28 August 2007 | doi:10.1038/nn1968
Social learning of fear
Andreas Olsson1 & Elizabeth A Phelps2,3
Focus on Emotion and Disorders of Emotion
- Focus issue:
- September 2007 Volume 10, No 9
Abstract
Research across species highlights the critical role of the amygdala in fear conditioning. However, fear conditioning, involving direct aversive experience, is only one means by which fears can be acquired. Exploiting aversive experiences of other individuals through social fear learning is less risky. Behavioral research provides important insights into the workings of social fear learning, and the neural mechanisms are beginning to be understood. We review research suggesting that an amygdala-centered model of fear conditioning can help to explain social learning of fear through observation and instruction. We also describe how observational and instructed fear is distinguished by involvement of additional neural systems implicated in social-emotional behavior, language and explicit memory, and propose a modified conditioning model to account for social fear learning. A better understanding of social fear learning promotes integration of biological principles of learning with cultural evolution.
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
Correspondence to: Andreas Olsson1 e-mail: aolsson@psych.columbia.edu
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