On 11th August, our department invited Prof. Xiaoming Li, vice president of Zhejiang University, executive dean of the School of Medicine and director of the institute of neuroscience, to deliver a seminar entitled “Fear, Anxiety and Depression”.
He first introduced his research background from an evolutionary perspective, emphasizing on the importance of fear in animal survival and the amygdala in mood regulation. He then explained the relationship among fear, anxiety and depression. Anxiety can be caused by fear generalization and too much anxiety may cause depression.
The main goal of Prof. Li’s lab is to identify which brain regions and circuits that are the most important in regulating mood. In the first part of his seminar, he revealed his lab’s findings that the inhibitory neurons and subnuclei of the amygdala across humans, macaques and mice are well conserved. This work provides theoretical basis of using mouse models to study mood-related diseases. Focusing on the amygdala, his lab found many novel circuits in mediating aversion/reward, pain, innate fear, contextual fear, anxiety and depression. Besides the amygdala, his lab found the involvement of the dorsal peduncular cortex in fear/pain regulation. His lab also focused on the molecular mechanisms and identified the CB1 cannabinoid receptor as a novel target for treating pain/anxiety/depression. They also developed a CB1 agonist for future clinical applications. Prof. Li’s research continues to elucidate the molecular and circuit mechanisms that underlie fear, anxiety and depression.