Curing fear in mice

..the researchers placed a beaker containing a fox-odor chemical in the mouse enclosure. Normal mice froze when they smelled the chemical and avoided the beaker. In contrast, mice lacking the ASIC1a protein showed a much-reduced freezing response and even climbed onto the beaker....
In a second set of experiments, the team also showed that chemically inhibiting the ASIC1a protein in normal mice (using a component of tarantula venom) similarly blunted the innate fear response.