Fear generalization in the primate amygdala.

Broad generalization of negative memories is a potential etiology for anxiety disorders, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We developed a non-human primate model that replicates behavioral observations in humans and identifies specific changes in tuning properties of amygdala neurons: the width of auditory tuning increases with the distance of its center from the conditioned stimulus. This center-width relationship can account for better detection and at the same time explain the wide stimulus generalization.