Hot spot discovered in the brain

New therapy for anxiety disorders possible

Anxiety disorders are mainly treated with benzodiazepines. A research team around Dr. Wulf Hood bag has now found the networks of neurons in which the substances act. This gives hope for new effective drugs for anxiety disorders.

How do benzodiazepines work??

Anxiety disorders are treated with benzodiazepines, among others. These psychotropic drugs, or BZDs for short, have proven successful over the past 50 years. Doctors know well how they act at the level of cells and molecules. Little is known, however, their interactions with circuits in the brain.

Anxiety disorders are treated with psychotropic drugs. Researchers now found the network of neurons in Gehrin where these drugs work. (Image: ra2 studio / fotolia.com)

Neural circuits

Brain research has exploded in recent decades. Scientists are learning more about neuronal circuits and brain areas where emotions such as anxiety arise.

Networked concept

The team around Dr. Wulf Haubensak and Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Hess now interdisciplinary genetics and the knowledge of neural circuits and mapped in the brain, the interaction that cause BZDs.

What did the researchers find??

The result was: BZDs slow down the transmission of aversive signals through the amygdala. Scientists now tagged the circuits affected by these BZD disruptions.

A hot spot in the brain

Haubensak says that anxiety is caused by the interaction of different brain circuits, and here the scientists have recognized a hot spot that is essential for the anxiolytic cure.

New insights applied

These results would not have been possible a few years ago, because, according to the researcher: To find the hotspot, it was necessary to know the connections of the brain neurons and this would have to be combined with methods of genetics. These methods and information have only been around recently. Previously, the researchers looked at mice for anxiety management issues, now they compare these findings to human brain scans and found that people have the same insights.

Imaging procedures

Magnetic resonance imaging and other imaging techniques are the key to studying neurobiological functions in the brain, the researchers say.

What are the results for the anxiety therapy?

Science now knows the networks of neurons that produce the effect of BZDs. So these can be targeted. New effective medicines would be possible without the side effects of those that exist today.

Further perspective

It is known that all mental disorders are based on a common molecular basis. The scientists now see their approach as the beginning of a new strategy in psychiatry. Psychiatry needs a strong biological foundation to accurately determine the effects of psychoactive drugs. (Dr. Utz Anhalt) swell

• https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0310-3
• https://www.imp.ac.at/groups/wulf-haubensak/
• http://www.viennabiocenter.org