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Dutra Dias H, Botelho AL, Bortoloti R, Dos Reis AC. Neuroscience contributes to the understanding of the neurobiology of temporomandibular disorders associated with stress and anxiety. Cranio 2024; 42:439-444. [PMID: 34515609 DOI: 10.1080/08869634.2021.1977901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This review proposes a neurobiological model for temporomandibular disorders (TMD) associated with stress and anxiety. METHODS An electronic search was performed in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. Articles published up to 2020 were selected. The search terms were the following: temporomandibular disorders, anxiety, stress, neurobiology of stress and anxiety, and orofacial pain. RESULTS In total, there were 100 studies, which presented a total of 10 different analyses. The results were described, demonstrating the type of analysis that was performed on each item analyzed for a better understanding of the context. CONCLUSION The conclusion is that the interactions between the masticatory system, temporomandibular joints (TMJs), and stomatognathic apparatus with "stress neuromatrix," "pain neuromatrix," "limbic system," and "neuroimmunoendocrine system" would produce the range of changes observed in neural connectivity and the diversity of symptoms presented in TMD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haroldo Dutra Dias
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Ufmg), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - André Luís Botelho
- Department of Dental Materials and Prosthodontics, Ribeirão Preto Dental School, University of São Paulo (Usp), Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
| | - Renato Bortoloti
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Ufmg), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Andréa Cândido Dos Reis
- Department of Dental Materials and Prosthodontics, Ribeirão Preto Dental School, University of São Paulo (Usp), Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
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2
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Lee SW, Kim S, Kim YJ, Jin B, Chang Y, Lee SJ. Aberrant function of the salience network related to maltreatment experiences during thought-action fusion. Brain Imaging Behav 2024; 18:485-495. [PMID: 38170302 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-023-00845-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
Childhood maltreatment (CM) causes early deviations in cognitive and affective processes, leading to future adaptation failures and psychopathology. Specifically, CM has been linked to cognitive distortions, and recent studies have focused on the impact of CM on the higher level of metacognitive beliefs. However, only a few studies have revealed the neural mechanisms underlying the association between altered metacognition and CM. Therefore, this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the neural correlates of thought-action fusion (TAF) tendency and CM experiences. Overall, 40 young and healthy adults (21 men) participated in this study and underwent fMRI during the TAF task as well as psychological evaluation for CM, TAF tendency, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. During the TAF task, they were asked to read negative (Neg) or neutral (Neu) statements about neutral or close people (CP). Notably, significant activations were found in regions such as the bilateral anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), caudate, thalamus, medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and right amygdala in the NegCp > NeuCP contrast. Furthermore, anterior insula and dACC activities were significantly correlated with total scores of CM experiences and TAF. Exaggerated TAF tendency in persons with CM experiences was associated with increased response of the anterior insula and dACC, which are two core hubs of the salience network. Our results therefore seem to suggest insights for a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying metacognitive beliefs related to CM experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang Won Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, Korea
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 680 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, 41944, Korea
| | - Seungho Kim
- Department of Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
| | - Yun Ji Kim
- Department of Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
| | - Bohyun Jin
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, Korea
| | - Yongmin Chang
- Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 680 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, 41944, Korea.
- Department of Radiology, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea.
| | - Seung Jae Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 680 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, 41944, Korea.
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea.
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Croy I, Bierling A. Smells as Communication Pathways - why Emotions Pass through the Nose. Laryngorhinootologie 2023; 102:S93-S100. [PMID: 37130533 DOI: 10.1055/a-1935-3214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
For many species, the sense of smell is the most important sensory system for interacting with the environment and conspecifics. In contrast, the role of perception and communication of chemosensory information in humans has long been underestimated. The human sense of smell was considered less reliable, so that it was given less importance compared to visual and auditory sensory impressions. For some time now, a growing branch of research has been dealing with the role of the sense of sell in emotion and social communication, which is often only perceived subconsciously. This connection will be examine in more detail in this article. First, he basics regarding the structure and function of our olfactory system will be described for better understanding and classification. Then, with this background knowledge, the significance of olfaction for interpersonal communication and emotions will be discussed. Finally, we conclude that people suffering from olfactory disorders have specific impairments in their quality of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilona Croy
- Institut für Klinische Psychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
- Klinik für Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden
| | - Antonie Bierling
- Institut für Klinische Psychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
- Klinik für Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden
- Institut für Materialwissenschaft und Nanotechnik, Technische Universität Dresden
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Duan S, Ren Z, Xia H, Wang Z, Zheng T, Li G, Liu L, Liu Z. Associations between anxiety, depression with migraine, and migraine-related burdens. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1090878. [PMID: 37181566 PMCID: PMC10166814 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1090878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Anxiety and depression are the most common psychiatric comorbidities in migraine, but their impact on the risk of developing migraine and their gender and age differences are unclear, and research on their associations with migraine-related burdens are limited. Objective To systematically explore the association between anxiety and depression with migraine and migraine-related burdens, including the risk of developing migraine, as well as migraine frequency, severity, disability, headache impact, quality of life and sleep quality. Methods A total of 170 migraineurs and 85 sex-and age-matched healthy control subjects were recruited consecutively for this study. Anxiety and depression were assessed using Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), respectively. Logistic regression and linear regression analyses were used to explore the associations between anxiety and depression with migraine and its burdens. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of SAS score and SDS score on migraine and its severe burdens. Results After adjusting for confounders, anxiety and depression remained significantly associated with an increased risk of developing migraine, with odds ratios of 5.186 (95% CI:1.755-15.322) and 3.147 (95% CI:1.387-7.141), respectively. Meanwhile, there were significant additive interactions between the association of anxiety and depression with the risk of developing migraine in gender and age (P for interaction <0.05), and the stronger correlations were found in participants with an age ≤ 36 years old and females. In addition, anxiety and depression were significantly independently associated with the migraine frequency, severity, disability, headache impact, quality of life, and sleep quality in migraine patients (P trend <0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of SAS score in predicting developing migraine was significantly higher than that of SDS score [0.749 (95% CI: 0.691-0.801) vs. 0.633 (95% CI: 0.571-0.692), p < 0.0001]. Conclusion Anxiety and depression were significantly independently associated with the increased risk of migraine and migraine-related burdens. Enhanced assessment of SAS score and SDS score is of great clinical value for the early prevention and treatment of migraine and its burdens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaojie Duan
- Department of Geriatrics, Taizhou Central Hospital (Taizhou University Hospital), Taizhou, China
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
| | - Zhiying Ren
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Hui Xia
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Ziyao Wang
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Tao Zheng
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Guanglu Li
- Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Lei Liu
- Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Zunjing Liu
- Department of Neurology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China
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Cui B, Jia HZ, Gao LX, Dong XF. Risk of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis: a Meta-analysis. Int J Ophthalmol 2022; 15:1381-1390. [PMID: 36017044 DOI: 10.18240/ijo.2022.08.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
AIM To quantitatively evaluate the risk of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis via performing a Meta-analysis. METHODS Three electronic database (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases) were searched for studies recording data about uveitis and anxiety as well as depression simultaneously up to January 2021. The incidence rate and standard mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated to analyse the association using random-effects models based on heterogeneity tests. RESULTS In total, 12 observational studies containing 874 patients with uveitis were included. The results showed that there was a significant association between uveitis and anxiety (SMD=0.97, 95%CI: 0.39 to 1.54, P=0.0009) and depression (SMD=0.79, 95%CI: 0.51 to 1.07, P<0.00001). The overall morbidities of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis were 39% and 17%, respectively. With subgroup analysis, the heterogeneity actually came from different kinds of uveitis. Specifically, the incidence rates of both anxiety and depression were relatively low in patients with anterior uveitis (33% and 15%), moderate in patients with infectious uveitis (46% and 22%), and high in patients with unspecified uveitis (59% and 35%). CONCLUSION It is preliminarily indicated that patients with uveitis may have a high risk of anxiety and depression. Ophthalmologists and psychologists should pay more attention to the psychological state when dealing with patients with uveitis. Further high-quality studies with detailed direct data are needed to draw more precise conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bei Cui
- Senior Department of Ophthalmology, the Third Medical Centre of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
| | - Hong-Zhen Jia
- Senior Department of Ophthalmology, the Third Medical Centre of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
| | - Li-Xiong Gao
- Senior Department of Ophthalmology, the Third Medical Centre of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
| | - Xiao-Fei Dong
- Department of Ophthalmology, No.967 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Support Force of the Chinese PLA, Dalian 116000, Liaoning Province, China
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6
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Dahlén AD, Schofield A, Schiöth HB, Brooks SJ. Subliminal Emotional Faces Elicit Predominantly Right-Lateralized Amygdala Activation: A Systematic Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:868366. [PMID: 35924231 PMCID: PMC9339677 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.868366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Prior research suggests that conscious face processing occurs preferentially in right hemisphere occipito-parietal regions. However, less is known about brain regions associated with non-conscious processing of faces, and whether a right-hemispheric dominance persists in line with specific affective responses. We aim to review the neural responses systematically, quantitatively, and qualitatively underlying subliminal face processing. PubMed was searched for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) publications assessing subliminal emotional face stimuli up to March 2022. Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses and narrative reviews were conducted on all studies that met ALE requirements. Risk of bias was assessed using the AXIS tool. In a meta-analysis of all 22 eligible studies (merging clinical and non-clinical populations, whole brain and region of interest analyses), bilateral amygdala activation was reported in the left (x = −19.2, y = 1.5, z = −17.1) in 59% of studies, and in the right (x = 24.4, y = −1.7, z = −17.4) in 68% of studies. In a second meta-analysis of non-clinical participants only (n = 18), bilateral amygdala was again reported in the left (x = −18, y = 3.9, z = −18.4) and right (x = 22.8, y = −0.9, z = −17.4) in 56% of studies for both clusters. In a final meta-analysis of whole-brain studies only (n=14), bilateral amygdala was also reported in the left (x = −20.2, y = 2.9, z = −17.2) in 64% of studies, and right (x = 24.2, y = −0.7, z = −17.8) in 71% of studies. The findings suggest that non-consciously detected emotional faces may influence amygdala activation, especially right-lateralized (a higher percentage of convergence in studies), which are integral for pre-conscious affect and long-term memory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia D. Dahlén
- Functional Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Aphra Schofield
- Faculty of Health, School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Helgi B. Schiöth
- Functional Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Samantha J. Brooks
- Functional Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Faculty of Health, School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- *Correspondence: Samantha J. Brooks
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7
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Attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume morphology in high anxious individuals. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:600-609. [PMID: 34755317 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00968-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
In a sample of highly anxious individuals, the relationship between gray matter volume brain morphology and attentional bias to threat was assessed. Participants performed a dot-probe task of attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume was acquired from whole brain structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans. The results replicate previous findings in unselected samples that elevated attentional bias to threat is linked to greater gray matter volume in the middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. In addition, we provide novel evidence that elevated attentional bias to threat is associated with greater gray matter volume in the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, cerebellum, and other distributed regions. Lastly, exploratory analyses provide initial evidence that distinct subregions of the right posterior parietal cortex may contribute to attentional bias in a sex-specific manner. Our results illuminate how differences in gray matter volume morphology relate to attentional bias to threat in anxious individuals. This knowledge could inform neurocognitive models of anxiety-related attentional bias to threat.
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8
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Carlson JM, Fang L, Koster EH, Andrzejewski JA, Gilbertson H, Elwell KA, Zuidema TR. Neuroplastic changes in anterior cingulate cortex gray matter volume and functional connectivity following attention bias modification in high trait anxious individuals. Biol Psychol 2022; 172:108353. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108353] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2022] [Revised: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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9
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Strand N, Fang L, Carlson JM. Sex Differences in Anxiety: An Investigation of the Moderating Role of Sex in Performance Monitoring and Attentional Bias to Threat in High Trait Anxious Individuals. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:627589. [PMID: 34093149 PMCID: PMC8172782 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.627589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 04/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are more predominant in women than men, however there is a lack of understanding as to what neurocognitive mechanisms drive this sex difference. Recent investigation has found a potential moderating role of sex in the relationship between anxiety and the error related negativity (ERN)—a component of error-monitoring that is prevalent in high anxiety individuals—such that females display a positive relationship between anxiety/worry and ERN amplitude. We strove to further explore the influence of sex on the relationship between trait anxiety and performance monitoring, specifically with ERN, as well as extend this work to include another hallmark of anxiety, attentional bias to threat. To meet this end, participants performed the flanker and dot-probe tasks, respectively. We did not find a significant difference in the relationship between attention bias scores and anxiety for female vs. males participants. Furthermore, ΔERN amplitudes were greater in males compared to females, and males had more positive CRN amplitudes than females. There were no significant associations between ERN or ΔERN with anxiety in both male and female participants. However, there was a significant relationship between CRN amplitudes and trait anxiety in male but not female participants. Given these results, the effect of sex on the relationship between components of performance monitoring—namely the CRN and ERN—and anxiety may be more nuanced than the current understanding. Our study was limited to detecting medium to large sized moderation effects. Our findings may be important for future meta-analysis on sex differences in anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Strand
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, United States
| | - Lin Fang
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, United States
| | - Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, United States
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10
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Torrence RD, Troup LJ, Rojas DC, Carlson JM. Enhanced contralateral theta oscillations and N170 amplitudes in occipitotemporal scalp regions underlie attentional bias to fearful faces. Int J Psychophysiol 2021; 165:84-91. [PMID: 33892017 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 03/27/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Attending toward fearful faces and other threatening stimuli increase the chance of survival. The dot-probe task is a commonly used measure of spatial attention. Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been found to be a reliable measure of attentional bias. The dot-probe literature suggests that posterior contralateral N170 amplitudes are more enhanced by fearful faces compared to ipsilateral amplitudes. However, ERP methods remove non-phase locked frequencies, which provides additional information about neural activity. Specifically, theta oscillations (5-7 Hz) have been linked to attentional processing. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between posterior contralateral theta oscillations and N170 amplitudes in the dot-probe task. A modified dot-probe task was used with fear and neutral facial expressions and EEG data was recorded from 33 electrodes. The ERP and time-frequency data were extracted from the P7 and P8 electrodes (left and right occipitotemporal regions). This study found enhanced N170 amplitude and theta oscillations in the electrodes posterior contralateral to the fearful face. Contralateral N170 amplitudes and theta oscillations were related such that greater N170 amplitudes were associated with greater theta oscillations. The results indicated that increased contralateral N170 and theta oscillations are related to each other and underlie attentional bias to fearful faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert D Torrence
- Department of Psychology, Saint Xavier University, 3700 W. 103rd st., Chicago, IL 60655, United States of America.
| | - Lucy J Troup
- Division of Psychology, School of Education and Social Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, High Street, Paisley PA1 2BE, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Donald C Rojas
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Behavioral Science Building, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States of America
| | - Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, New Science Facility, Marquette, MI, 49855, United States of America
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11
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Livermore JJA, Klaassen FH, Bramson B, Hulsman AM, Meijer SW, Held L, Klumpers F, de Voogd LD, Roelofs K. Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat: The Role of Autonomic Psychophysiological States. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:621517. [PMID: 33867915 PMCID: PMC8044748 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.621517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Acutely challenging or threatening situations frequently require approach-avoidance decisions. Acute threat triggers fast autonomic changes that prepare the body to freeze, fight or flee. However, such autonomic changes may also influence subsequent instrumental approach-avoidance decisions. Since defensive bodily states are often not considered in value-based decision-making models, it remains unclear how they influence the decision-making process. Here, we aim to bridge this gap by discussing the existing literature on the potential role of threat-induced bodily states on decision making and provide a new neurocomputational framework explaining how these effects can facilitate or bias approach-avoid decisions under threat. Theoretical accounts have stated that threat-induced parasympathetic activity is involved in information gathering and decision making. Parasympathetic dominance over sympathetic activity is particularly seen during threat-anticipatory freezing, an evolutionarily conserved response to threat demonstrated across species and characterized by immobility and bradycardia. Although this state of freezing has been linked to altered information processing and action preparation, a full theoretical treatment of the interactions with value-based decision making has not yet been achieved. Our neural framework, which we term the Threat State/Value Integration (TSI) Model, will illustrate how threat-induced bodily states may impact valuation of competing incentives at three stages of the decision-making process, namely at threat evaluation, integration of rewards and threats, and action initiation. Additionally, because altered parasympathetic activity and decision biases have been shown in anxious populations, we will end with discussing how biases in this system can lead to characteristic patterns of avoidance seen in anxiety-related disorders, motivating future pre-clinical and clinical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- James J. A. Livermore
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Felix H. Klaassen
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Bob Bramson
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Anneloes M. Hulsman
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Sjoerd W. Meijer
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Leslie Held
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Floris Klumpers
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Lycia D. de Voogd
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Karin Roelofs
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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12
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Carlson JM. A systematic review of event-related potentials as outcome measures of attention bias modification. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13801. [PMID: 33682161 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Attention bias modification (ABM) was initially developed with the goal of reducing attentional bias to threat-and subsequently anxious symptoms-in individuals with heightened anxiety. Although controversial, ABM appears to be generally effective in achieving this goal. Yet, the primary outcome measure of ABM (i.e., the reaction time-based differences score) has poor reliability and temporal resolution, which limits the inferences that can be drawn. In contrast, event-related potentials (ERPs) have superior reliability as well as temporal resolution and may therefore be better outcome measures of ABM. In this review, I systematically assess the research using ERPs as outcome measures in ABM protocols. I focus on the extent to which the ERPs modified by ABM represent earlier or later stages of information processing. In addition, I explore the extent to which ABM produces near and/or far transfer of learning effects on ERP measures. The reviewed literature suggests that ERPs are promising outcome measures of ABM. ABM modulates the effects of affective stimuli on posterior visually evoked ERPs (i.e., P1) as well as ERPs at anterior electrodes (i.e., P2, N2, and ERN). Based on the state of the field, several directions for future research are identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
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13
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Gilbertson H, Fang L, Andrzejewski JA, Carlson JM. Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex intrinsic functional connectivity linked to electrocortical measures of error monitoring. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13794. [PMID: 33624288 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Revised: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
The error-related negativity (ERN) is a response-locked event-related potential, occurring approximately 50 ms following an erroneous response at frontocentral electrode sites. Source localization and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research indicate that the ERN is likely generated by activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The dACC is thought to be a part of a broader network of brain regions that collectively comprise an error monitoring network. However, little is known about how intrinsic connectivity within the dACC-based error monitoring network contributes to variability in ERN amplitude. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between dACC functional connectivity and ERN amplitude. In a sample of highly trait anxious individuals, the ERN was elicited in a flanker task and functional connectivity was assessed in a 10-min resting-state fMRI scan. Results suggest that the strength of dACC seeded functional connectivity with the supplementary motor area is correlated with the ΔERN (i.e., incorrect-correct responses) amplitude such that greater ΔERN amplitude was accompanied by greater functional coupling between these regions. In sum, ERN amplitude appears to be related to the strength of functional connectivity between error monitoring and motor control regions of the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hayley Gilbertson
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
| | - Lin Fang
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
| | - Jeremy A Andrzejewski
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
| | - Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
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14
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Mapping neural activity patterns to contextualized fearful facial expressions onto callous-unemotional (CU) traits: intersubject representational similarity analysis reveals less variation among high-CU adolescents. PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 3:e12. [PMID: 33283146 PMCID: PMC7681174 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2020.13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2020] [Revised: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are early-emerging personality features characterized by deficits in empathy, concern for others, and remorse following social transgressions. One of the interpersonal deficits most consistently associated with CU traits is impaired behavioral and neurophysiological responsiveness to fearful facial expressions. However, the facial expression paradigms traditionally employed in neuroimaging are often ambiguous with respect to the nature of threat (i.e., is the perceiver the threat, or is something else in the environment?). In the present study, 30 adolescents with varying CU traits viewed fearful facial expressions cued to three different contexts ("afraid for you," "afraid of you," "afraid for self") while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Univariate analyses found that mean right amygdala activity during the "afraid for self" context was negatively associated with CU traits. With the goal of disentangling idiosyncratic stimulus-driven neural responses, we employed intersubject representational similarity analysis to link intersubject similarities in multivoxel neural response patterns to contextualized fearful expressions with differential intersubject models of CU traits. Among low-CU adolescents, neural response patterns while viewing fearful faces were most consistently similar early in the visual processing stream and among regions implicated in affective responding, but were more idiosyncratic as emotional face information moved up the cortical processing hierarchy. By contrast, high-CU adolescents' neural response patterns consistently aligned along the entire cortical hierarchy (but diverged among low-CU youths). Observed patterns varied across contexts, suggesting that interpretations of fearful expressions depend to an extent on neural response patterns and are further shaped by levels of CU traits.
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Mao Y, Zuo XN, Ding C, Qiu J. OFC and its connectivity with amygdala as predictors for future social anxiety in adolescents. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 44:100804. [PMID: 32716853 PMCID: PMC7301179 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Revised: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 06/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Social anxiety is a common problem that usually emerges at puberty, during which great developmental changes occur both in the brain and mental state. However, little is known about the influence of social anxiety on adolescents’ brain and behavior. The present study investigated the neural basis of social anxiety using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and functional connectivity analysis. Then we investigated whether social anxiety is associated with attention bias. Furthermore, we investigated the neural basis of this association. Finally, longitudinal data was used to test if these biomarkers could predict social anxiety. The results indicated that social anxiety is positively associated with the grey matter volume (GMV) of orbital-frontal cortex (OFC), and the functional connectivity (FC) of OFC-amygdala. Mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between social anxiety and attention avoidance is partly mediated by the FC of OFC-amygdala. Finally, the present study demonstrated a close relationship between FC of the OFC-amygdala, the GMV of the OFC and the individual’s social anxiety one year later. The present study suggested the aberrant structure of OFC and its connectivity with amygdala as the neural underpinning of social anxiety, which might serve as a compensatory mechanism to decrease attention avoidance and promote effective emotion regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Mao
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China; Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Xi-Nian Zuo
- Institute of Psychology, CAS, Beijing, China.
| | - Cody Ding
- Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China; Educational Psychology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, United States.
| | - Jiang Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China; Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
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16
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Liu Y, Wang P, Wang G. The priority of goal-relevant information and evolutionarily threatening information in early attention processing:Evidence from behavioral and ERP study. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8008. [PMID: 32409674 PMCID: PMC7224194 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65062-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information can both capture attention. However, some studies have suggested that goal-relevant information is prioritized over evolutionarily threatening information, while some studies have shown the opposite conclusion. The aim of the present study was to investigate the attention advantage by presenting evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information simultaneously. Three conditions were presented in this study: evolutionarily threatening information + an irrelevant stimulus, goal-relevant information + an irrelevant stimulus, and evolutionarily threatening information + goal-relevant information. The behavioral results showed no attentional bias toward evolutionarily threatening information in the two conditions including evolutionarily threatening information; in the two conditions including goal-relevant information, participants showed attentional bias toward goal-relevant information in both. However, the ERP results showed that in the two conditions including evolutionarily threatening information, a significantly stronger N2pc response was seen for evolutionarily threatening information than for the other types of pictures, and goal-relevant information produced a significantly stronger N2pc response than that for an irrelevant stimulus. The abovementioned results indicated that in the earlier stage of attention, both evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information have attention processing advantages over irrelevant stimuli; furthermore, attention was captured by evolutionarily threatening information faster than it was by goal-relevant information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuting Liu
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Pei Wang
- Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
| | - Guan Wang
- School of Education Science, Huaiyin Normal University, Huaian, 223001, China
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17
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Andrzejewski JA, Carlson JM. Electrocortical responses associated with attention bias to fearful facial expressions and auditory distress signals. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 151:94-102. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Revised: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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18
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Task MRI-Based Functional Brain Network of Anxiety. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2020; 1191:3-20. [PMID: 32002919 DOI: 10.1007/978-981-32-9705-0_1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a good tool for researchers to understand the biological mechanisms and pathophysiology of the brain due to the translational characteristics of MRI methods. For the psychiatric illness, this kind of mental disorders usually have minor alterations when compared to traditional neurological disorders. Therefore the functional study, such as functional connectivity, would play a significant role for understanding the pathophysiology of mental disorders. This chapter would focus on the discussion of task MRI-based functional network studies in anxiety. For social anxiety disorder, the limbic system, such as the temporal lobe, amygdala, and hippocampus, would show alterations in the functional connectivity with frontal regions, such as anterior cingulate, prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortices. PD has anterior cingulate cortex-amygdala alterations in fear conditioning, frontoparietal alterations in attention network task, and limbic-prefrontal alterations in emotional task. A similar amygdala-based aberrant functional connectivity in specific phobia is observed. The mesocorticolimbic and limbic-prefrontal functional alterations are found in generalized anxiety disorder. The major components of task MRI-based functional connectivity in anxiety include limbic and frontal regions which might play a vital role for the origination of anxiety under different scenarios and tasks.
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Doell KC, Olié E, Courtet P, Corradi-Dell'Acqua C, Perroud N, Schwartz S. Atypical processing of social anticipation and feedback in borderline personality disorder. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2019; 25:102126. [PMID: 31884223 PMCID: PMC6938803 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2019] [Revised: 12/09/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal dysfunction. In BPD, the superior temporal sulcus is hyperactivated during social anticipation. In BPD, amygdala response to evaluative social feedback is also reduced. Amygdala suppression is induced by anterior cingulate rise during social anticipation. Atypical frontolimbic interactions may contribute to interpersonal dysfunction in BPD.
Background- Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by maladaptive social functioning, and widespread negativity biases. The neural underpinnings of these impairments remain elusive. We thus tested whether BPD patients show atypical neural activity when processing social (compared to non-social) anticipation, feedback, and particularly, how they relate to each other. Methods- We acquired functional MRI data from 21 BPD women and 24 matched healthy controls (HCs) while they performed a task in which cues and feedbacks were either social (neutral faces for cues; happy or angry faces for positive and negative feedbacks, respectively) or non-social (dollar sign; winning or losing money for positive and negative feedbacks, respectively). This task allowed for the analysis of social anticipatory cues, performance-based feedback, and their interaction. Results- Compared to HCs, BPD patients expressed increased activation in the superior temporal sulcus during the processing of social cues, consistent with elevated salience associated with an upcoming social event. BPD patients also showed reduced activation in the amygdala while processing evaluative social feedback. Importantly, perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) activity during the presentation of the social cue correlated with reduced amygdala activity during the presentation of the negative social feedback in the BPD patients. Conclusions- These neuroimaging results clarify how BPD patients express altered responses to different types of social stimuli (i.e. social anticipatory cues and evaluative feedback) and uncover an atypical relationship between frontolimbic regions (pgACC-amygdala) over the time span of a social interaction. These findings may help to explain why BPD patients suffer from pervasive difficulties adapting their behavior in the context of interpersonal relationships and should be considered while designing better-targeted interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly C Doell
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Geneva Neuroscience Center, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Emilie Olié
- Department of Psychiatric Emergency & Acute Care, Lapeyronie Hospital, CHU Montpellier - Inserm U1061 - University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Philippe Courtet
- Department of Psychiatric Emergency & Acute Care, Lapeyronie Hospital, CHU Montpellier - Inserm U1061 - University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Corrado Corradi-Dell'Acqua
- Geneva Neuroscience Center, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, FPSE, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nader Perroud
- Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Sophie Schwartz
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Geneva Neuroscience Center, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Kleshchova O, Rieder JK, Grinband J, Weierich MR. Resting amygdala connectivity and basal sympathetic tone as markers of chronic hypervigilance. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2019; 102:68-78. [PMID: 30529716 PMCID: PMC6605037 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.11.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2018] [Revised: 11/16/2018] [Accepted: 11/24/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chronic hypervigilance, a state of sustained alertness and hyperarousal in the absence of threat, has been shown to predict poorer clinical outcomes post-trauma. An exaggerated and persistent amygdala alerting response to affective information has been proposed as a reactivity-based, and thus indirect, marker of hypervigilance. However, because chronic hypervigilance is a persistent rather than reactive state, it should be directly observable under resting-state conditions without the need for exposure to affectively charged stimuli. OBJECTIVE We tested resting amygdala connectivity and basal sympathetic and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity as direct neural and neuroendocrine markers of chronic hypervigilance. PARTICIPANTS 24 trauma-exposed women (age M = 22.9, SD = 5.5) and 20 no-trauma controls (age M = 21.1, SD = 3.2). MEASURES Amygdala connectivity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging at rest and during viewing of novel and familiar affective scenes. Elevated amygdala connectivity during the viewing of novel scenes (exaggerated alerting response) and familiar scenes (persistent alerting response) was used as a reactivity-based index of hypervigilance. Resting amygdala connectivity and basal salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol were tested as neural and neuroendocrine markers of hypervigilance, respectively. RESULTS Compared to no-trauma controls, trauma-exposed women showed greater connectivity between the left amygdala and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) both during affective processing and at rest. Exaggerated neural novelty response was associated with greater resting left amygdala-vACC connectivity and higher basal sAA, but not cortisol. CONCLUSIONS Greater synchronization of threat-detection circuitry in the absence of threat and basal sympathetic tone might serve as complementary resting-state markers of the cognitive and physiological components of chronic hypervigilance, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olena Kleshchova
- Hunter College, The City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA,The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Jenna K. Rieder
- Hunter College, The City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA,The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Jack Grinband
- Department of Radiology and Neurology, Columbia University, 622 W 168th St, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Mariann R. Weierich
- Hunter College, The City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA,The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
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21
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Parenting style moderates the effects of exposure to natural disaster-related stress on the neural development of reactivity to threat and reward in children. Dev Psychopathol 2019; 31:1589-1598. [PMID: 30724155 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579418001347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Little is known about the effect of natural disasters on children's neural development. Additionally, despite evidence that stress and parenting may both influence the development of neural systems underlying reward and threat processing, few studies have brought together these areas of research. The current investigation examined the effect of parenting styles and hurricane-related stress on the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children. Approximately 8 months before and 9 months after Hurricane Sandy, 74 children experiencing high and low levels of hurricane-related stress completed tasks that elicited the reward positivity and error-related negativity, event-related potentials indexing sensitivity to reward and threat, respectively. At the post-Hurricane assessment, children completed a self-report questionnaire to measure promotion- and prevention-focused parenting styles. Among children exposed to high levels of hurricane-related stress, lower levels of promotion-focused, but not prevention-focused, parenting were associated with a reduced post-Sandy reward positivity. In addition, in children with high stress exposure, greater prevention-focused, but not promotion-focused, parenting was associated with a larger error-related negativity after Hurricane Sandy. These findings highlight the need to consider contextual variables such as parenting when examining how exposure to stress alters the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children.
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22
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Tang W, Bao C, Xu L, Zhu J, Feng W, Zhang W, Lin C, Chen L, Cheng Q, Ding P, Zhou M, Bao Y, Yu X, Zhao K, He J. Depressive Symptoms in Late Pregnancy Disrupt Attentional Processing of Negative-Positive Emotion: An Eye-Movement Study. Front Psychiatry 2019; 10:780. [PMID: 31736800 PMCID: PMC6834685 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00780] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated biases for negative-positive information in component processes of visual attention (initial shift vs. maintenance of gaze) among women in late pregnancy with or without depressive symptoms. Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed a series of picture pairs depicting negative, positive, and neutral scenes. Initial orienting (latency and percentage of first fixation) and gaze duration were computed. Compared with neutral pictures, the group with major depressive symptoms (MDS) were less able to sense the positive emotion-related pictures and were over-responsive to negative emotion-related pictures. The group with suspicious depressive symptoms (SDS) had an attention bias toward both positive and negative emotion-related pictures. The group with no depressive symptoms (NDS) had an attention bias toward positive emotion-related pictures and had an initial attention avoidance tendency for negative emotion-related pictures. The initial gaze direction bias score for negative emotion-related pictures was positively correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms. Therefore, women with a risk of perinatal depression have a significant bias toward negative stimuli. Hypervigilant emotion processing during pregnancy may increase a woman's susceptibility to depression during late pregnancy. Attention away from negative information or attention toward positive information may provide a way of buffering emotional responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weina Tang
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Ciqing Bao
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Ling Xu
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Jie Zhu
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Wenqian Feng
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Wenmiao Zhang
- Department of Obstetrics, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Cong Lin
- Department of Obstetrics, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Lan Chen
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Qianqian Cheng
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Penghao Ding
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Meixi Zhou
- Department of Obstetrics, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Ying Bao
- Department of Obstetrics, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Xin Yu
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Ke Zhao
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Jincai He
- School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.,Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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23
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Residual effects of cannabis use on attentional bias towards fearful faces. Neuropsychologia 2018; 119:482-488. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2018] [Revised: 08/30/2018] [Accepted: 09/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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De Witte NAJ, Mueller SC. White matter integrity in brain networks relevant to anxiety and depression: evidence from the human connectome project dataset. Brain Imaging Behav 2018; 11:1604-1615. [PMID: 27744495 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-016-9642-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Anxiety and depression are associated with altered communication within global brain networks and between these networks and the amygdala. Functional connectivity studies demonstrate an effect of anxiety and depression on four critical brain networks involved in top-down attentional control (fronto-parietal network; FPN), salience detection and error monitoring (cingulo-opercular network; CON), bottom-up stimulus-driven attention (ventral attention network; VAN), and default mode (default mode network; DMN). However, structural evidence on the white matter (WM) connections within these networks and between these networks and the amygdala is lacking. The current study in a large healthy sample (n = 483) observed that higher trait anxiety-depression predicted lower WM integrity in the connections between amygdala and specific regions of the FPN, CON, VAN, and DMN. We discuss the possible consequences of these anatomical alterations for cognitive-affective functioning and underscore the need for further theory-driven research on individual differences in anxiety and depression on brain structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nele A J De Witte
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
| | - Sven C Mueller
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
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25
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Torrence RD, Troup LJ. Event-related potentials of attentional bias toward faces in the dot-probe task: A systematic review. Psychophysiology 2017; 55:e13051. [PMID: 29266532 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2017] [Revised: 11/20/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The dot-probe task is a common task to assess attentional bias toward different stimuli and how groups differ (e.g., attentional bias in anxiety disorders). However, measuring reaction time has been suggested to be unreliable. Neuroimaging methods such as fMRI were shown to be more reliable in assessing attentional bias, but fMRI has poor temporal resolution and therefore cannot assess timing of attention. ERPs have been used to examine the time course of attentional bias. Although ERP research may be more reliable than reaction time, there have been inconsistencies in the literature. This review systematically searched for articles that used the dot-probe task with facial expressions and measured neural correlates with ERP. We found that some of the inconsistencies might be the cause of methodological differences (e.g., timing of stimuli), differences in emotional expression, and/or sample differences (e.g., sex, age, etc.). Suggestions on how future research could address the issues presented in this review were discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert D Torrence
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Lucy J Troup
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
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26
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Sex difference in awareness of threat: A meta-analysis of sex differences in attentional orienting in the dot probe task. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Ordaz SJ, LeMoult J, Colich NL, Prasad G, Pollak M, Popolizio M, Price A, Greicius M, Gotlib IH. Ruminative brooding is associated with salience network coherence in early pubertal youth. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2017; 12:298-310. [PMID: 27633394 PMCID: PMC5390708 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Rumination, and particularly ruminative brooding, perpetuates dysphoric mood states and contributes to the emergence of depression. Studies of adults and older adolescents have characterized the association between rumination and intrinsic functional connectivity within default mode (DMN), salience (SN) and executive control (ECN) networks; we know little, however, about the brain network basis of rumination during early puberty, a sensitive period for network reorganization. 112 early puberty boys and girls completed resting-state scans, the Ruminative Response Scale, and the Youth Self-Report questionnaire. Using independent components analysis and dual regression, we quantified coherence for each individual in networks of interest (SN, ECN, DMN) and in non-relevant networks (motor, visual) in which we predicted no correlations with behavioral measures. Boys and girls did not differ in levels of rumination or internalizing symptoms, or in coherence for any network. The relation between SN network coherence and rumination; however, and specifically ruminative brooding, was moderated by sex: greater SN coherence was associated with higher levels of brooding in girls but not in boys. Further, in girls, brooding mediated the relation between SN coherence and internalizing symptoms. These results point to coherence within the SN as a potential neurodevelopmental marker of risk for depression in early pubertal girls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah J Ordaz
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Joelle LeMoult
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Natalie L Colich
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Gautam Prasad
- Imaging Genetics Center & Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Madeline Pollak
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Morgan Popolizio
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Alexandra Price
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Michael Greicius
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Ian H Gotlib
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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Aday J, Carlson JM. Structural MRI-based measures of neuroplasticity in an extended amygdala network as a target for attention bias modification treatment outcome. Med Hypotheses 2017; 109:6-16. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2017.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2017] [Revised: 08/17/2017] [Accepted: 09/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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29
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Mechanisms for attentional modulation by threatening emotions of fear, anger, and disgust. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2017; 17:198-210. [PMID: 27761806 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-016-0473-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Appropriately attending to threatening environmental stimuli is evolutionarily adaptive and crucial for survival. This study revealed that nonconscious attentional modulation of disgust has different behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) patterns, as compared to fear and anger. To facilitate its evolutionary purpose of avoidance, disgust first diverts rather than attracts attention. Accordingly, the N1 was smaller in a validly than in an invalidly disgust-cued condition. Furthermore, the frontal P3a for disgust, anger, and fear was found to be larger in the valid than in the invalid condition, which was interpreted as an involuntary switching of attention toward threat-related events to mobilize cognitive resources for action or defense. On the contrary, the parietal P3b only occurred at the conscious level; the enhanced P3b indicated that more cognitive resources were being allocated toward the task-relevant but previously less attended location, to ensure the effective achievement of task goals. In addition, group comparisons between individuals with low and high disgust sensitivity showed that the ERP differences between the disgust and the anger/fear conditions at the unconscious level may be attributed only to individuals with high disgust sensitivity. These findings, together with previous knowledge of the effects of fear and anger on attention, strengthen our confidence in the two-stage scheme of attentional modulation by threats, which consists of an early stage of bottom-up response scaling of sensory processing (reflected by the P1 and N1) and a later stage of top-down integration and regulation of emotion and behavior (reflected by the P3).
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Braem S, De Houwer J, Demanet J, Yuen KSL, Kalisch R, Brass M. Pattern Analyses Reveal Separate Experience-Based Fear Memories in the Human Right Amygdala. J Neurosci 2017; 37:8116-8130. [PMID: 28733358 PMCID: PMC6596782 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0908-17.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2017] [Revised: 07/06/2017] [Accepted: 07/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Learning fear via the experience of contingencies between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) is often assumed to be fundamentally different from learning fear via instructions. An open question is whether fear-related brain areas respond differently to experienced CS-US contingencies than to merely instructed CS-US contingencies. Here, we contrasted two experimental conditions where subjects were instructed to expect the same CS-US contingencies while only one condition was characterized by prior experience with the CS-US contingency. Using multivoxel pattern analysis of fMRI data, we found CS-related neural activation patterns in the right amygdala (but not in other fear-related regions) that dissociated between whether a CS-US contingency had been instructed and experienced versus merely instructed. A second experiment further corroborated this finding by showing a category-independent neural response to instructed and experienced, but not merely instructed, CS presentations in the human right amygdala. Together, these findings are in line with previous studies showing that verbal fear instructions have a strong impact on both brain and behavior. However, even in the face of fear instructions, the human right amygdala still shows a separable neural pattern response to experience-based fear contingencies.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In our study, we addressed a fundamental problem of the science of human fear learning and memory, namely whether fear learning via experience in humans relies on a neural pathway that can be separated from fear learning via verbal information. Using two new procedures and recent advances in the analysis of brain imaging data, we localized purely experience-based fear processing and memory in the right amygdala, thereby making a direct link between human and animal research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Senne Braem
- Department of Experimental Psychology and
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium, and
| | - Jan De Houwer
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium, and
| | | | - Kenneth S L Yuen
- Neuroimaging Center Mainz, Focus Program Translational Neuroscience and
| | - Raffael Kalisch
- Neuroimaging Center Mainz, Focus Program Translational Neuroscience and
- Deutsches Resilienz-Zentrum, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz 55131, Germany
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31
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Transdiagnostic factors and pathways to multifinality: The error-related negativity predicts whether preschool irritability is associated with internalizing versus externalizing symptoms at age 9. Dev Psychopathol 2017; 28:913-926. [PMID: 27739383 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579416000626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
There is increasing interest among developmental psychopathologists in broad transdiagnostic factors that give rise to a wide array of clinical presentations (multifinality), but little is known about how these processes lead to particular psychopathological manifestations over the course of development. We examined whether individual differences in the error-related negativity (ΔERN), a neural indicator of error monitoring, predicts whether early persistent irritability, a prototypical transdiagnostic construct, is associated with later internalizing versus externalizing outcomes. When children were 3 years old, mothers were interviewed about children's persistent irritability and completed questionnaires about their children's psychopathology. Three years later, EEG was recorded while children performed a go/no-go task to measure the ΔERN. When children were approximately 9 years old, mothers again completed questionnaires about their children's psychopathology. The results indicated that among children who were persistently irritable at age 3, an enhanced or more negative ΔERN at age 6 predicted the development of internalizing symptoms at age 9, whereas a blunted or smaller ΔERN at age 6 predicted the development of externalizing symptoms. Our results suggest that variation in error monitoring predicts, and may even shape, the expression of persistent irritability and differentiates developmental trajectories from preschool persistent irritability to internalizing versus externalizing outcomes in middle to late childhood.
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Carlson JM, Rubin D, Mujica-Parodi LR. Lost emotion: Disrupted brain-based tracking of dynamic affective episodes in anxiety and depression. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2017; 260:37-48. [PMID: 28013067 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2016] [Revised: 12/01/2016] [Accepted: 12/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
In our day-to-day lives we are confronted with dynamic sensory inputs that elicit a continuously evolving emotional response. Insight into the brain basis of the dynamic nature of emotional reactivity may be critical for understanding chronic symptoms of anxiety and depression. Here, individuals with generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and healthy controls watched a video with dynamic affective content while fMRI activity was recorded. Across all participants there was a large-scale tracking of affective content in emotion processing regions and the default mode network. Anxious and depressed individuals displayed less brain-based coupling within these regions and the extent of this uncoupling correlated with variability in emotional numbing. Thus, abnormal neural tracking of affective information during dynamic emotional episodes appears to represent a disconnection between affective cues in the environment and an individual's response to these cues-providing a putative neural basis for context insensitive affective reactivity and emotional numbing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychology, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA.
| | - Denis Rubin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA; Department of Radiology, A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
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33
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Weber MA, Morrow KA, Rizer WS, Kangas KJ, Carlson JM. Sustained, not habituated, activity in the human amygdala: A pilot fMRI dot-probe study of attentional bias to fearful faces. COGENT PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2016.1259881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Millicent A. Weber
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
| | - Kelly A. Morrow
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
| | - Will S. Rizer
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
| | - Keara J. Kangas
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
| | - Joshua M. Carlson
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855, USA
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34
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Wiers CE, Wiers RW. Imaging the neural effects of cognitive bias modification training. Neuroimage 2016; 151:81-91. [PMID: 27450074 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.07.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2016] [Revised: 07/16/2016] [Accepted: 07/19/2016] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Cognitive bias modification (CBM) was first developed as an experimental tool to examine the causal role of cognitive biases, and later developed into complementary interventions in experimental psychopathology research. CBM involves the "re-training" of implicit biases by means of multiple trials of computerized tasks, and has been demonstrated to change anxious, depressive and drug-seeking behavior, including clinically relevant effects. Recently, the field has progressed by combining CBM with neuroimaging techniques, which provides insight into neural mechanisms underlying how CBM affects implicit biases in anxiety, depression, and addiction, and potentially other pathologies. This narrative literature review summarizes the state of the art of studies on the neural effects of CBM and provides directions for future research in the field. A total of 13 published studies were found and discussed: n=9 in anxiety, n=2 in depressive behavior, and n=2 in addiction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corinde E Wiers
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Reinout W Wiers
- Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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35
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Carlson JM. Facilitated orienting underlies fearful face-enhanced gaze cueing of spatial location. COGENT PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2016.1147120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Joshua M. Carlson
- Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette 49855, MI, USA
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36
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Carlson JM, Torrence RD, Vander Hyde MR. Beware the eyes behind the mask: The capture and hold of selective attention by backward masked fearful eyes. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s11031-016-9542-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Reinecke A, Filippini N, Berna C, Western DG, Hanson B, Cooper MJ, Taggart P, Harmer CJ. Effective emotion regulation strategies improve fMRI and ECG markers of psychopathology in panic disorder: implications for psychological treatment action. Transl Psychiatry 2015; 5:e673. [PMID: 26529426 PMCID: PMC5068756 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2015.160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2015] [Revised: 08/26/2015] [Accepted: 09/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairments in emotion regulation are thought to have a key role in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders, but the neurobiological underpinnings contributing to vulnerability remain poorly understood. It has been a long-held view that exaggerated fear is linked to hyperresponsivity of limbic brain areas and impaired recruitment of prefrontal control. However, increasing evidence suggests that prefrontal-cortical networks are hyperactive during threat processing in anxiety disorders. This study directly explored limbic-prefrontal neural response, connectivity and heart-rate variability (HRV) in patients with a severe anxiety disorder during incidental versus intentional emotion regulation. During 3 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging, 18 participants with panic disorder and 18 healthy controls performed an emotion regulation task. They either viewed negative images naturally (Maintain), or they were instructed to intentionally downregulate negative affect using previously taught strategies of cognitive reappraisal (Reappraisal). Electrocardiograms were recorded throughout to provide a functional measure of regulation and emotional processing. Compared with controls, patients showed increased neural activation in limbic-prefrontal areas and reduced HRV during incidental emotion regulation (Maintain). During intentional regulation (Reappraisal), group differences were significantly attenuated. These findings emphasize patients' ability to regulate negative affect if provided with adaptive strategies. They also bring prefrontal hyperactivation forward as a potential mechanism of psychopathology in anxiety disorders. Although these results challenge models proposing impaired allocation of prefrontal resources as a key characteristic of anxiety disorders, they are in line with more recent neurobiological frameworks suggesting that prefrontal hyperactivation might reflect increased utilisation of maladaptive regulation strategies quintessential for anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Reinecke
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - N Filippini
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
- Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - C Berna
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
- Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Service d'anesthésiologie Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - D G Western
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - B Hanson
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
| | - M J Cooper
- Isis Education Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - P Taggart
- Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - C J Harmer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
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Circuit-wide structural and functional measures predict ventromedial prefrontal cortex fear generalization: implications for generalized anxiety disorder. J Neurosci 2014; 34:4043-53. [PMID: 24623781 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3372-13.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a critical role in a number of evaluative processes, including risk assessment. Impaired discrimination between threat and safety is considered a hallmark of clinical anxiety. Here, we investigated the circuit-wide structural and functional mechanisms underlying vmPFC threat-safety assessment in humans. We tested patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 32, female) and healthy controls (n = 25, age-matched female) on a task that assessed the generalization of conditioned threat during fMRI scanning. The task consisted of seven rectangles of graded widths presented on a screen; only the midsize one was paired with mild electric shock [conditioned stimulus (CS)], while the others, safety cues, systematically varied in width by ±20, 40, and 60% [generalization stimuli (GS)] compared with the CS. We derived an index reflecting vmPFC functioning from the BOLD reactivity on a continuum of threat (CS) to safety (GS least similar to CS); patients with GAD showed less discrimination between threat and safety cues, compared with healthy controls (Greenberg et al., 2013b). Using structural, functional (i.e., resting-state), and diffusion MRI, we measured vmPFC thickness, vmPFC functional connectivity, and vmPFC structural connectivity within the corticolimbic systems. The results demonstrate that all three factors predict individual variability of vmPFC threat assessment in an independent fashion. Moreover, these neural features are also linked to GAD, most likely via an vmPFC fear generalization. Our results strongly suggest that vmPFC threat processing is closely associated with broader corticolimbic circuit anomalies, which may synergistically contribute to clinical anxiety.
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Price RB, Siegle GJ, Silk JS, Ladouceur CD, McFarland A, Dahl RE, Ryan ND. Looking under the hood of the dot-probe task: an fMRI study in anxious youth. Depress Anxiety 2014; 31:178-87. [PMID: 24578016 PMCID: PMC3992818 DOI: 10.1002/da.22255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2014] [Accepted: 01/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Anxious youth have shown altered behavioral performance on the dot-probe task, but neural activation patterns provoked by the task remain poorly understood. In particular, neural mechanisms of threat disengagement, a clinically relevant construct, have been inadequately explored. METHOD During fMRI acquisition, 121 youth (ages 9-13; 90 with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, and/or Social Phobia; 31 nonanxious controls) completed a dot-probe task, which required participants to identify the location of a dot replacing either a neutral or fearful face in a pair containing both faces. We assessed neural substrates of threat disengagement by comparing congruent trials (in which the dot replaces the fearful face) to incongruent trials (in which the dot replaces the neutral face). RESULTS Across subjects, decreased rostrodorsal anterior cingulate cortex (rdACC) activity was observed specifically during incongruent trials. Nonanxious youth showed a convergent pattern in bilateral parahippocampal and hippocampal regions, whereas anxious youth showed an opposing pattern in these limbic areas, suggesting less integration of response across cortical and limbic areas relevant to threat appraisal. Reduced functional connectivity between rdACC and left parahippocampus/hippocampus was associated with greater anxiety. CONCLUSIONS In the largest dot-probe fMRI sample to date, both anxious and nonanxious youth showed a neural pattern consistent with successful disengagement of threat reactivity in the rdACC. However, anxious youth showed evidence of abnormal disengagement in bilateral parahippocampal/hippocampal clusters when attention was directed away from threat. Early interventions targeting neural mechanisms of threat disengagement may be beneficial, for example, by increasing integration across rdACC and limbic regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca B. Price
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,Correspondence to: Rebecca Price, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
| | - Greg J. Siegle
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Jennifer S. Silk
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Cecile D. Ladouceur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Ashley McFarland
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Ronald E. Dahl
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,Department of Community Health and Human Development, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California
| | - Neal D. Ryan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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40
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Carlson JM, Reinke KS. Attending to the fear in your eyes: Facilitated orienting and delayed disengagement. Cogn Emot 2014; 28:1398-406. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2014.885410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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