'Seen in this light, the defensive survival circuits of humans and other mammals can be conceptualized as manifestations of an ancient survival function—the ability to detect danger and respond to it—that may in fact predate animals and their nervous systems, and perhaps may go back to the beginning of life. Fear, on the other hand, from my perspective, is a product of cortical cognitive circuits.'
- J. LeDoux
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2021.0292