Yikes! Scientists Discover Factor That Directs Brain’s Fear Conditioning

Our brains remember frightening situations to keep us safe in the future. Computer virus from a misspelled email sender? Delete! That bite from a boot bug? Check those shoes.

A team led by neuroscientists at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology has discovered a key molecular player in fear conditioning. It’s a specialized RNA with a memorable acronym, SLAMR. Their study found SLAMR must be present in adequate quantities for neurons to build the complex connections required for fear conditioning. Their research appears in the journal Nature Communications.

Sathya Puthanveettil, Ph.D., the study’s corresponding author, said the research also adds an important piece to the enormously complex puzzle of how and why neurons deliver such RNAs long distances, to their synapses, the junctions between neurons.

“This actually changes the ways that we think about how synapses work,” Puthanveettil said.

Having the RNA right where it’s needed, at the ends of elongated brain cells, enables the brain’s rapid response to an alarm signal. But how does it move there? The study also discerned the molecular motor, or courier, that neurons use to move SLAMR from cell body to synapse. Coincidentally, the courier, KIF5C, was one discovered by their lab in a 2021 paper. They found it helped neurons build connections during memory formation.

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