The neural circuitry of fear is clearly important in resilience, but it has not been studied carefully in resilient individuals. It is possible that a well-functioning system in resilient individuals can prevent over-generalizing from specific conditioned stimuli, induce differential functioning of reconsolidation and extinction processes, or lead to an increased capacity for enhanced inhibition of amygdala responses by the medial PFC (mPFC) in stressful situations78. Of note, preliminary findings suggest that treating patients with PTSD using cognitive behaviour therapy might have beneficial effects, by reducing amygdala activation and increasing rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation during fear processing79.
