Disruptions of salience network during uncertain anticipation of conflict control in anxiety

BACKGROUND

Anxiety has been characterized by disrupted processing of conflict control, while little is known about anticipatory processing of conflicts in anxiety. Anticipation is the key factor in both anxiety and cognitive control, especially under uncertain conditions. The current study therefore examined neurocomputational mechanisms of uncertain anticipation of conflict control in anxiety.

METHODS

Twenty-six participants with high-trait anxiety and twenty-nine low-trait anxiety participants completed a cue-flanker task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The hierarchical drift diffusion model (HDDM) was used to measure the cognitive computations during the task. To identify the neurocomputational mechanism of anticipatory control in anxiety, mediation analysis and dynamic causal modelling (DCM) analysis were conducted to examine the relationship between functional connectivity of brain networks and the parameters of HDDM.

RESULTS

We found influences of regulatory signals from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to dorsal anterior cingulate cortex on decision threshold in low-trait anxiety (LTA), but not in high-trait anxiety (HTA), especially for the condition with uncertain cues. The results indicate deficient top-down anticipatory control of upcoming conflicts in anxious individuals. DCM and HDDM analyses revealed that lower decision threshold was associated with higher intrinsic connectivity of salience network (SN) in anxious individuals, suggesting that dysfunctional SN disrupts anticipation of conflict control under uncertainty in anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest hyperfunction of the SN underlies the deficient information accumulation during uncertain anticipation of upcoming conflicts in anxiety. Our findings shed new light on the mechanisms of anticipation processing and the psychopathology of anxiety.

Anticipatory threat responses mediate the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety: A cross-sectional study

Increasing research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions can effectively alleviate anxiety; however, the underlying neural mechanism has not yet been elucidated. Recent studies suggest that abnormal and excessive anticipatory responses to unpredictable threats play an important role in anxiety symptoms. Mindfulness refers to the non-judgmental awareness of the present moment's real experience, which is antithetical to the future-oriented thinking processes involved in anxiety-oriented cognition and its corresponding emotion regulation tactics. Thus, mitigating anticipatory threat responses may be a potential mechanism by which mindfulness alleviates anxiety. This study aimed to detect the possible mediating effects of anticipatory threat responses on the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. A total of 35 trait-anxious (TA) individuals and 36 low-anxious (LA) individuals were recruited to participate in the predictable and unpredictable threat test. Self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and electroencephalographic responses to uncertainty were recorded. TA individuals reported more IU and less mindfulness, and exhibited significantly higher late positive potential (LPP) and longer reaction time (RT) than LA individuals in the unpredictable negative threat condition. In addition, there were significant mediating effects of the LPP amplitude and RT in the uncertain threats on the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. The data from this study verified that mitigating anticipatory threat responses (including self-reported IU, behavioral RT, and LPP amplitude) might be the potential mechanism by which mindfulness alleviates anxiety. These findings may have practical implications for the development and optimization of mindfulness treatments for anxiety.