All parts of the brain › Functions › Fear

What part of the brain controls fear?

The amygdala is the hub: it learns which things signal danger and drives the response, the hypothalamus and the midbrain’s periaqueductal grey turn it into a racing heart and freezing, the hippocampus adds where it happened, the insula registers the body’s state, and the prefrontal cortex can damp the response down. [1][2][3]

The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The list of parts still says what each one does for fear.

Lit: whole parts; region borders not drawn.

Slice

All 6 parts are lit together. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap a part on the brain or a name in the list to focus it; .

The periaqueductal grey is a region on the midbrain, not a separate shape. The 3D model has no shape for it, so the whole midbrain is lit; the region’s exact border is not drawn.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a region on the prefrontal cortex, not a separate shape. The 3D model has no shape for it, so the whole prefrontal cortex is lit; the region’s exact border is not drawn.

Fear: 6 parts lit

Amygdala, hypothalamus, midbrain, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and insula. Tap one to see where it is and what it does.

The parts and their roles

Fear conditioning is thought to depend on it: it learns and stores which cues predict danger and drives the fear response; LeDoux’s work showed its primary role in fear. [1][3] Where is the amygdala?
Turns a threat into the body’s response: it can activate the sympathetic pathway that raises arousal, and through the pituitary it starts the stress-hormone chain that ends with cortisol from the adrenal glands. [4][5] Where is the hypothalamus?
Holds the periaqueductal grey around the cerebral aqueduct, which organises behavioural responses to threatening stimuli such as freezing. [2] Where is the midbrain?
Adds context: it is particularly linked to fear learned about places and situations, and it integrates emotional experience with cognition. [1][3] Where is the hippocampus?
Its ventromedial and infralimbic parts matter for extinction, the learning that a cue is now safe; the inhibition of the amygdala seen during extinction is inferred to come from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. [6] Where is the prefrontal cortex?
Gives sensory experience an emotionally relevant context and tracks the body’s inner state; the right frontal insula is tied to how well a person can feel their own heartbeat, and the left insula is active when processing fearful faces. [7] Where is the insula?

Named areas on the lit gyri

The periaqueductal grey, on the : The grey matter around the cerebral aqueduct inside the tegmentum of the midbrain; it organises behavioural responses to threatening stimuli, and its dorsal and lateral parts can set off defensive responses such as freezing. [2]
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, on the : The lower middle part of the prefrontal cortex; in fear extinction it is thought to be the source of the inhibition that quiets the amygdala’s output neurons. [6]

How they work together

A fear stimulus can reach the amygdala by two paths: straight from the thalamus, which is fast, or by way of the cortex, which is slower but processes the details of what was seen or heard. [3]
Worked example: a dog barks behind a fence. The quick thalamus-to-amygdala path starts the startle before you know what it was; the hypothalamus raises heart rate and breathing; the hippocampus recalls that this yard has a dog; and once the cortex sees the fence, the prefrontal cortex helps the response settle. [3][5][1]
Extinction does not simply erase a learned fear: in adults it is read as new learning of a “safe” memory that exists alongside the original one, which is why an extinguished fear can return. [6]
Honest limit: these parts are a network seen working together in imaging and animal studies, much of it in rodents, not a single fear centre; the amygdala is the best-supported hub, but the periaqueductal grey and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex are regions within lit parts, not shapes in this model. [1][2]

Fear is one emotion among several handled by the limbic parts on the emotions page, which adds the cingulate gyrus. [8] What part of the brain controls emotions?

The amygdala, lit on both pages, also feeds the reward circuit: it receives input from the ventral tegmental area and outputs to the nucleus accumbens. [9] What part of the brain controls reward, pleasure and motivation?

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. A part lit here takes part in fear; it does not do it alone, and it does other jobs too. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); on it the brainstem includes the midbrain, pons and medulla, so lighting the brainstem lights all three.