Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Memory

Fear memory engram is the mind-killer

Nature Neuroscience volume 26, pages 729–731 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Stegemann et al. have unraveled a long-lasting role for fear engrams in future pain perception. Prefrontal pain and fear representations become entangled following a fearful event. As subsequent painful experiences also reactivate the fear network, silencing the fear engram alone can alleviate both tonic pain and hypersensitivity in chronic pain.

In Frank Herbert’s novel Dune, Paul Atreides has to endure a tremendous amount of pain, without flinching, by putting his hand in a mysterious device presented to him by the Bene Gesserit’s reverend mother, as a test of his presence of mind. Paul (or Timothée Chalamet, for the more cinematographically inclined scientists) manages to do so by reciting the ‘litany of fear’: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer [...],” trying to feel no pain by suppressing his fear of the pain itself. As he was writing those lines, Herbert probably didn’t realize how true the litany would eventually ring to neuroscientists.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Silencing the PFC fear memory engram suppresses pathological hypersensitivity in a chronic pain model.

References

  1. Olango, W. M. & Finn, D. P. Curr Top. Behav Neurosci. 20, 251–80 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Elman, I. & Borsook, D. Front. Psychiatry 9, 29 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Stegemann, A. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01291-x (2023).

  4. Josselyn, S. A. & Tonegawa, S. Science 367, eaaw4325 (2020).

  5. Ong, W.-Y., Stohler, C. S. & Herr, D. R. Mol. Neurobiol. 56, 1137–1166 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Giustino, T. F. & Maren, S. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 9, 298 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Sakaguchi, M. & Hayashi, Y. Mol. Brain 5, 32–32 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Caterina, M. J. et al. Nature 389, 816–824 (1997).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Rosen, J. B., Asok, A. & Chakraborty, T. Front. Neurosci. 9, 292 (2015).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Vlaeyen, J. W. S. Pain 156, S86–S93 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Deuis, J. R., Dvorakova, L. S. & Vetter, I. Front. Mol. Neurosci. 10, 284 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Shin, L. M. & Liberzon, I. Neuropsychopharmacology 35, 169–191 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Rashid, A. J. et al. Science 353, 383–387 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Cai, D. J. et al. Nature 534, 115–118 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank C. Gillon for helpful comments. This work was supported by grants to G.V. from ANR (ANR-20-CE16-0015-01), Emergence(s) Ville de Paris (2019 DAE 81), a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (no. 29489).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cerebral Codes and Circuits Connectivity team, Brain Plasticity Unit, CNRS, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, Paris, France

    Clément Pouget & Gisella Vetere

Authors
  1. Clément Pouget
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gisella Vetere
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gisella Vetere.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pouget, C., Vetere, G. Fear memory engram is the mind-killer. Nat Neurosci 26, 729–731 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01292-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01292-w

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing