# An End to Fear?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-end-to-fear/412866>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 23, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-end-to-fear/412866 "2007-07-23T18:07:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-end-to-fear/412866/1 "2007-07-23T18:07:17Z")

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[How fear works in the brain discovered.](http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/trauma-0715.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and colleagues show that inhibiting a kinase (kinases are enzymes that change proteins) called Cdk5 facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context. Conversely, the learned fear persisted when the kinase’s activity was increased in the hippocampus, the brain’s center for storing memories.
> 
> Cdk5, paired with the protein p35, helps new brain cells, or neurons, form and migrate to their correct positions during early brain development. In the current work, the MIT researchers looked at how Cdk5 affects the ability to form and eliminate fear-related memories.

Could give new meaning to the phrase “courage in a bottle.”

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**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-end-to-fear/412866/2 "2007-07-23T22:38:21Z")

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Bah. Professor Crane tought us all about fear.