Erasing Fears & Traumas Based on the Modern Neuroscience of Fear

About this video

Huberman discusses the neuroscience of fear, trauma and post-traumatic stress, including the cells, circuits and chemicals giving rise to the fear response, why fear sometimes becomes trauma, and behavioural, drug and brain-machine interface approaches to extinguishing fear. He previews a study he describes in which five minutes a day of deliberate exposure to stress alleviated longstanding depressive and fear-related symptoms. A key argument Huberman makes is that fears cannot simply be eliminated; they must be replaced with new positive events. He illustrates this with a hypothetical child who, after a car accident while biking to soccer practice, avoids biking, sports and friends. Huberman explains that retelling the narrative to a clinician can reduce the fear response, but a good therapist would also build new positive associations with biking, soccer and social events and explicitly link them back to the earlier traumatic experience, using top-down prefrontal circuits he describes as inhibitory to the threat reflex.

Key takeaways

• Huberman argues fears must be replaced with new positive associations, not simply eliminated.
• Huberman describes linking new positive experiences back to the traumatic event as key to extinction.
• Huberman previews deliberate stress exposure as a counterintuitive tool against fear symptoms.
• Huberman explains narrative retelling can reduce physiological fear responses.
• Huberman describes top-down prefrontal circuits as inhibitory to the threat reflex circuit.

Episode details: published December 6, 2021 · 2.5M views · 2:13:50 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The science and protocols described are Andrew Huberman’s, presented for education — not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before changing your own health practices.

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