The role of genes, regulating fear, in behaviors critical for survival remains unclear and requires further studies at the molecular, cellular and neural circuitry levels. Towards this end, this thesis is focused on how the anatomic neural circuits expressing the gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) regulate two types of behaviors, those that are related to individual's threat and those that are related to the survival of the species. Individual's threat is studied using fear memory extinction in

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... 1. Behaviors related to the species' survival are studied using maternal behaviors in Aims 2 and 3. The main conclusion from this work is that the molecular mechanisms and neural circuits regulating fear memory are also involved in behaviors critical for the survival of the species.