In a paper appearing in the March 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Caltech Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Dean Mobbs and his co-authors show for the first time that there are two areas of the brain involved in processing fear. The areas, which they call “fear circuits,” split up the responsibility for dealing with threats. Distant threats that allow more time for thinking and strategic behavior are handled by the cognitive-fear circuit. Immediate threats requiring a quick response (fight, flight, or freeze) are handled by the reactive-fear circuit.