Caltech
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The Fear Lab is inspired by insights from the fields of behavioral ecology and social, evolutionary, and clinical psychology. Our lab’s main endeavor is to understand the neural and behavioral dynamics of human social and emotional experiences and consequently build new theoretical models that merge multiple fields. We employ brain imaging (e.g., fMRI) and novel behavioral techniques to examine the neurobiological systems that coordinate fear and anxiety in humans. My lab also investigates the proximate and ultimate value of social behavior. We are currently pursuing questions of how social behavior orchestrates and shapes emotion and how such operations are variably disrupted in psychiatric disorders. The core findings of the fear lab include:
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Transitions between cortical and midbrain circuits. We have shown that while the properties of a threat are key to utilizing the correct survival strategy, it is the spatial distance that plays a critical role in which neural systems are engaged. Slow-attacking threats engage prefrontal and hippocampal systems, and fast-attacking threats instigate reactive, defensive responses (Mobbs et al., Science, PNAS; Qi et al., PNAS, Fung et al., Nature: Human Behavior). Further, recent work suggests that the switch between these cortical and midbrain systems may occur via the hypothalamus (Kim et al., PLoS Biology).
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Safety signals in the prefrontal cortex. How does the human brain respond to safety signals when under threat? Over several experiments, we have shown that the anterior vmPFC plays a role in safety signals and safety decisions. These include Margin of Safety decisions (how close people place themselves to safety; Qi et al., Journal of Neuroscience), the increasing distance to a tarantula (Mobbs et al., PNAS), and most recently, how the meta-representation of safety is represented in response to external danger potency and changing levels of safety (Tashjian et al., PLoS Biology). We have also examined the computational basis of protection, showing that safety signals are reflected in MB computations (Tashjian et al., PLoS Computational Biology).
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Social determinants of threat. We have connected the bridge between social psychology and affective science to understand how the characteristics of others and group size alter our perception of danger. We have shown that increasing group size decreases the perception of danger - a mechanism called risk dilution (Tedeschi et al., Emotion). Also, the characteristics of others can up or down-regulate emotional states. For example, if one is paired with a competent-looking or high-rated player on a perceptual task where the outcome results in an electric shock, then the insula and cingulate cortex exhibit decreased activity, and there is a subjective decrease in anxiety (Qi, Foot, et al., Journal of Neuroscience). Finally, using two patch foraging tasks, we have shown that when subjects are foraging with competition, they show a competition avoidance strategy (Mobbs, Hassabis et al., Journal of Neuroscience), yet when in danger, they show a risk dilution strategy (Silston, Wise et al., Nature Communications).
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Theoretical and experimental approaches to survival strategies. Our research has led us to several frameworks and approaches to studying survival strategies in humans. We have proposed a computational ethological framework where human studies can take advantage of the new platforms to create virtual ecologies. Here, experimentalists can measure movement and create threatening or reward environments that are moving (e.g., predators of prey), providing more ecologically valid decision models (Mobbs, Wise et al., Neuron). We have also put forward several frameworks that attempt to integrate current theories of emotion with evolutionary and ecological models of survival (Mobbs et al., Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews; Current Opinion in Behavioral Science and Nature Reviews Neuroscience).
LAB NEWS
COVID-19. The Invisible threat - Caltech News.
Anxiety and slow threat - news by Neil McNaughton
Dean discusses horror movies and how they have influenced his approach to the study of human fear.
Summer School in Affective Neuroscience is now taking applications! Click here to apply: http://affect-neuroscience.org
Bad Science. Podcast on the movie IT with Dean and The comedians behind Horney for Horror.
Caltech News: Cognitive vs Reactive fear and escape decisions
Dean discusses the Titanic and survival
We have moved to Caltech!
Chivalry is not dead when it comes to morality
Remembering our friend Charlotte Prevost
Dean has been awarded a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Foundation.
Competence and pain anticipation paper featured on the CNS front page
Ellen is awarded the NSF graduate fellowship and publishes her first paper in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Congratulations!
Dean is one of the winners of the 2015 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions
WUFV news - paying for torture
Welcome to our lab neighbors - The Tottenham Lab
Celebrating Andy Calder's life
Dean interviewed along with Director Scott Derrickson on how to make a movie scary
Dean talks on Brazilian TV about about NDEs
Emotional Brain Training: LA Times
Our New Lab!
LeMonde and NDEs
Discoveries and Selected Publications
THEORETICAL VIEWS
Framework: Mobbs, D., *Wise, T., *Tashjian, S. M., *Zhang, J., Friston, K., and Headley, D. (2024). Survival in a World of Complex Dangers. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. Dec;167:105924
Experimental Approaches: FMobbs, D., F*Wise, T., Suthana, N., *Guzman, N., Kriegeskorte, N., Leibo, J., (2021). The Promises and Challenges of Human Computational Ethology. Neuron. 109; 14; 2224-2238.
Mobbs, D, Trimmer, P., Blumstein, D.T., Dayan, P. (2018). Foraging for foundations in decision neuroscience: Insights from ethology. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience. 19, 419-427. Cover Image.
General Views: Mobbs, D, Adolphs, R., Feldman-Barrett, L. Faneslow, M., LeDoux, J., Ressler, K., and Tye, K. (2019). Viewpoint: Approaches to defining and investigating fear. Nature Neuroscience. 22, 1205-1216. Republished in Scientific American (Embracing Fear – 30, 6, 24-40).
SWITCHING BETWEEN DEFENSIVE STATES
Framework: Mobbs, D., Headley, D., *Ding, W., Dayan, P. (2020). Space, Time, and Fear: Survival Computations Along Defensive Circuits. 24, 228-24; Trends in Cognitive Science. 24; 3; 228-241. Cover Image.
*Kim, J., *Tashjian, S.M., Mobbs, D. (2024). The human hypothalamus coordinates switching between different survival actions. PLoS-Biology. 22, 6 e3002624.
Zhang, H., Cheng, J., Hu, K., Qi, S., Liu, Q., Yao, Y., Mobbs, D., Wu, H. (In Revision). Intracranial dissection of the human escape circuits.
*Fung, B., *Qi, S., Hassabis, D., Daw, N., Mobbs, D. (2019). Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety. Nature: Human Behavior. 3, 702-708. Perspective by Neil McNaughton.
*Qi, S., Hassabis, D., *Sun, J., Guo, F., Daw, N., and Mobbs, D. (2018). How Cognitive and Reactive Fear Circuits Optimize Escape Decisions in Humans. PNAS. 115 (12), 3186-3191.
Mobbs, D., Yu, R., Rowe, J., Eich, H., Feldmanhall, O., Dalgleish, T. (2010). Neural activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula. PNAS. 107: 20582-6. Top 10 PNAS papers of 2010.
Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D (2007). When Fear is Near: Threat Imminence Elicits Prefrontal - Periaqueductal Grey Shifts in Humans. Science. 317; 1079-1083. Perspective by Steve Maren.
SAFETY COMPUTATIONS AND PREFRONTAL SAFETY CODING
Framework: *Tashjian, S.M., *Zbozinek, T., Mobbs, D. (2021). A Decision Architecture for Safety Computations. Trends in Cognitive Science. 25; 5; 342-354.
*Tashjian, S. M., Cussen, J., *Deng, W., *Zhang, B., and Mobbs, D. (2025). Subregions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex integrate threat and protective information to meta-represent safety? PLoS Biology.
*Qi S, Cross L, *Wise, T., *Sui, X., O’Doherty, J.P., Mobbs D. (2024). The Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Spatial Margin of Safety Calculations. Journal of Neuroscience.
*Tashjian, S.M., *Wise, T., Mobbs, D. (2022). Increased model-based control for acquiring protection. PLoS-Computational Biology. 18 (12), e1010805.
*Yao, S., Qi, S., Kendrick, K.M. and Mobbs, D. (2018). Attentional set to safety recruits the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Nature: Scientific Reports. 8, 15395.
SOCIAL AGENTS AND SURVIVAL
*Wise, T., Charpentiar, C. Dayan, P., and Mobbs, D. (2023). Interactive cognitive maps support flexible behavior under threat. Cell Reports. 42. 8.
*Silston, B., F*Wise, T., *Qi, S., *Sui, X., Dayan, P., and Mobbs, D. (2021). Neural encoding of socially adjusted value during competitive and hazardous foraging. Nature Communications. 12 (1) 1-11.
*Tedeschi, E., *Buyalskaya, A., *Armand, S., *Silston, B., and Mobbs, D. (2021) Fear in groups: Increasing group size reduces perceptions of danger. Emotion. 21(7):1499-1510.
*Qi S, *Footer O, Camerer CF, Mobbs D. (2018) A Collaborator's Reputation Can Bias Decisions and Anxiety under Uncertainty. Journal of Neuroscience. 2018 Feb 28;38(9):2262-2269.
*Shu, J. *Hassel, S., Weber, J., Ochsner, K.N. and Mobbs, D. (2017). A Role for Empathy in the Experience of Vicarious Anxiety. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 146 (8), 1164.
+Mobbs, D., +Hassabis, D. *Yu, R., Chu, C., Rushworth, M., Boorman, E., Dalgleish, T. (2013). Foraging under competition: The neural basis of input matching in humans. Journal of Neuroscience. +Equal Authors