UCLA opens new Staglin Family Music Festival Center for Brain and Behavioral Health

More than 30 percent of Americans will experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives. A new research center at UCLA will be dedicated to increasing our understanding of the brain and learning how to help the brain recover when those, and other malfunctions, occur. The formation of the Staglin Family Music Festival Center for Brain and Behavioral Health, which is scheduled to open July 1, was announced today by UCLA Life Sciences Dean Victoria Sork. Michael Fanselow, distinguished professor of psychology in the UCLA College, was appointed its director. Genetic risk factors, combined with environmental experiences, can cause the brain to malfunction. The center’s researchers will seek to discover what those changes are and develop novel methods to address them. “The center will focus on brain health and will develop novel methods to get the unhealthy brain back to the healthy state,” said Fanselow, who also holds a UCLA faculty appointment in psychiatry. Fanselow said anxiety disorders are generally chronic and do not go away on their own. Some of these disorders, like post-traumatic stress, are devastating. Understanding fear Fanselow’s research addresses fear, memory and anxiety disorders, including how traumatic memories lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders and depression. He has studied how fear works in the brain using rats and mice, whose fear systems work in remarkably similar ways to that of humans. Fear serves an important func...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news