The Neurotransmission Basis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders by the Fear Conditioning Paradigm

Fear conditioning constitutes the best and most reproducible paradigm to study the neuro- biological mechanisms underlying emotions. On the other hand, studies on the synaptic plasticity phenomena underlying fear conditioning present neural circuits enforcing this learning pattern related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Notably, in both humans and the rodent model, fear conditioning and context rely on dependent neurocircuitry in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, cin- gulate gyrus, and hippocampus. In this review, an overview of the role that classical neurotransmitters play in the contextual conditioning model of fear, and therefore in PTSD, was reported.