Check out our new paper in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, co-authored by Karin and Peter Dayan.
Title
Freezing revisited: Coordinated autonomic and central optimization of threat coping
Abstract
Animals have sophisticated mechanisms for coping with dangers. Freezing is a unique state that, upon threat detection, allows evidence to be gathered, response possibilities to be previsioned and preparations to be made for worst case fight or flight. We propose that – rather than reflecting a passive fear-state – the particular somatic and cognitive characteristics of freezing help to conceal overt responses, while optimizing sensory processing and action preparation. Critical for these functions are the neurotransmitters noradrenaline and acetylcholine, which modulate neural
information processing and also control sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. However, the interactions between autonomic systems and the brain during freezing, and the way that they jointly coordinate responses, remain incompletely explored. We review the joint actions of these systems and offer a novel computational framework to describe their temporally harmonized integration. This reconceptualization of freezing has implications for its role in decision making under threat and for psychopathology.
Reference
Roelofs K & Dayan. (2022). Freezing revisited: Coordinated autonomic and central optimization of threat coping. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-022-00608-2