The defense system of fear: behavior and neurocircuitry

Fear can be conceived as a functional defense behavior system representing a part of the innate species-specific behavioral repertoire (ethogram), basic to the survival of individuals and species. Its function is to protect living beings against dangerous, threatening and aversive situations. A distinction is made between anticipatory defense behaviors released by potential dangers and those elicited by effective dangers, especially predators. The neural mechanisms serving the defense system constitute a hierarchical network with the amygdala as point of convergence of the various threatening stimuli. The central nucleus of the amygdala projects to the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG), the hypothalamus and the brainstem which coordinate various defensive responses such as flight, defensive fight, freezing, avoidance reactions, submissive postures, tonic immobilization, hypoalgesia and autonomic arousal. These circuits may be activated either by unconditioned or conditioned stimuli.