Cannabis, Anxiety and the Brain: Inside the Fear Circuit

Send us Fan Mail Why does the same cannabis leave one person blissful and another certain the sirens are coming? In this Heliox deep dive, we follow fear into the brain of a mouse, past a lens thinner than a needle and into the central amygdala. Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, led by Dr. Sachin Patel, found that cannabinoids weaken the GABA "brake" on fear-driving somatostatin neurons. When stress hits the gas at the same moment, anxiety can spiral. When ...