Anxiety symptoms without depression are associated with cognitive control network (CNN) dysfunction: An fNIRS study

Anxiety is a common psychological disorder associated with other mental disorders, with depression being the most common comorbidity. Few studies have examined the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety after controlling for depression. This study aimed to explore whether there are differences in cortical activation in anxiety patients with different severities whose depression are normal. In the current study, depression levels were normal for 366 subjects-139 healthy subjects, 117 with mild anxiety, and 110 with major anxiety. Using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a verbal fluency task (VFT) to test subjects' anxiety and depression and cognitive function, respectively. A 53-channel guided near-infrared spectroscopic imaging technology (fNIRS) detected the concentration of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb). Correlation analysis between anxiety severity and oxy-Hb concentration in the brain cortex was performed, as well as ANOVA analysis of oxy-Hb concentration among the three anxiety severity groups. The results showed that anxiety severity was significantly and negatively correlated with oxy-Hb concentrations in the left frontal eye field (lFEF) and in the right dorsolateral prefrontal area (rDLPFC). The oxy-Hb concentration in the lFEF and the rDLPFC were significantly lower in the major anxiety disorder group than that in the control group. This suggests that decreased cortical activity of the lFEF and rDLPFC may be neural markers of anxiety symptoms after controlling for depression. Anxiety symptoms without depression may be result from the dysfunction of the cognitive control network (CCN) which includes the lFEF and rDLPFC.

Trait anxiety is associated with attentional brain networks

Trait anxiety is a well-established risk factor for anxiety and depressive disorders, yet its neural correlates are not clearly understood. In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of trait anxiety in a large sample (n = 179) of individuals who completed the trait and state versions of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used independent component analysis to characterize individual resting-state networks (RSNs), and multiple regression analyses to assess the relationship between trait anxiety and intrinsic connectivity. Trait anxiety was significantly associated with intrinsic connectivity in different regions of three RSNs (dorsal attention network, default mode network, and auditory network) when controlling for state anxiety. These RSNs primarily support attentional processes. Notably, when state anxiety was not controlled for, a different pattern of results emerged, highlighting the importance of considering this factor in assessing the neural correlates of trait anxiety. Our findings suggest that trait anxiety is uniquely associated with resting-state brain connectivity in networks mainly supporting attentional processes. Moreover, controlling for state anxiety is crucial when assessing the neural correlates of trait anxiety. These insights may help refine current neurobiological models of anxiety and identify potential targets for neurobiologically-based interventions.

Influence of GABAA and GABAB receptor activation on auditory sensory gating and its association with anxiety in healthy volunteers

BACKGROUND

Dysfunctional sensory gating in anxiety disorders, indexed by the failure to inhibit the P50 event-related potential (ERP) to repeated stimuli, has been linked to deficits in the major inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

AIMS/METHODS

This study, conducted in 30 healthy volunteers, examined the acute effects of GABAA (lorazepam: 1 mg) and GABAB receptor (baclofen: 10 mg) agonists on P50 measures of auditory sensory gating within a paired-stimulus (S1-S2) paradigm and assessed changes in gating in relation to self-ratings of anxiety.

RESULTS

Compared to placebo, lorazepam reduced ERP indices of sensory gating by attenuating response to S1. Although not directly impacting P50 inhibition, baclofen-induced changes in gating (relative to placebo) were negatively correlated with trait but not state anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

These preliminary findings support the involvement of GABA in sensory gating and tentatively suggest a role for GABAB receptor signaling in anxiety-associated gating dysregulation.

Interplay among Anxiety, Digital Environmental Exposure, and Cognitive Control: Implications of Natural Settings

Inhibitory control performance may differ greatly as a function of individual differences such as anxiety. Nonetheless, how cognitive control proficiency might be influenced by exposure to various environments and how anxiety traits might impact these effects remain unexplored. A cohort of thirty healthy volunteers participated in the study. Participants performed a Go/No-Go task before exposure to a 'forest' and 'urban' virtual environment, in a counterbalanced design, before repeating the GNG task. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was finally filled-in. Our findings unveiled an initial negative correlation between anxiety trait levels and GNG task performance, consistent with the established literature attributing difficulties in inhibitory functionality to anxiety. Additionally, different environmental exposures reported opposite trends. Exposure to the 'forest' environment distinctly improved the GNG performance in relation to anxiety traits, while the 'urban' setting demonstrated adverse effects on task performance. These results underscore the intricate relationship among cognitive control, environmental exposure, and trait anxiety. In particular, our findings highlight the potential of natural settings, such as forests, to mitigate the impact of anxiety on inhibition. This might have implications for interventions aimed at improving cognitive control.

EEG correlates of trait test anxiety in the flanker task for adolescents

Adolescents face constant exams and often experience severe test anxiety. Previous studies suggested that test anxiety impairs individuals' inhibitory control. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that anxiety interferes with the recruitment of the prefrontal region of the brain, which modulates top-down attentional control during the completion of inhibitory control tasks. However, there is little neurophysiological evidence regarding how test anxiety impairs inhibitory control in adolescents. This study used the flanker task to measure individuals' inhibitory control ability, and both event-related potential and electroencephalography indicators were used to measure neurophysiological processes. The results showed that increased trait test anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with theta power oscillation, while adolescents performed both incongruent and congruent trials. This finding suggests that trait test anxiety adolescents are less able to exert greater effort to complete the inhibitory control task and show impoverished top-down attentional control resources.

Now it's your turn!: Eye blink rate in a Jenga task modulated by interaction of task wait times, effortful control, and internalizing behaviors

Dopamine is a versatile neurotransmitter with implications in many domains, including anxiety and effortful control. Where high levels of effortful control are often regarded as adaptive, other work suggests that high levels of effortful control may be a risk factor for anxiety. Dopamine signaling may be key in understanding these relations. Eye blink rate is a non-invasive proxy metric of midbrain dopamine activity. However, much work with eye blink rate has been constrained to screen-based tasks which lack in ecological validity. We tested whether changes in eye blink rate during a naturalistic effortful control task differ as a function of parent-reported effortful control and internalizing behaviors. Children played a Jenga-like game with an experimenter, but for each trial the experimenter took an increasingly long time to take their turn. Blinks-per-second were computed during each wait period. Multilevel modeling examined the relation between duration of wait period, effortful control, and internalizing behaviors on eye blink rate. We found a significant 3-way interaction between effortful control, internalizing behaviors, and duration of the wait period. Probing this interaction revealed that for children with low reported internalizing behaviors (-1 SD) and high reported effortful control (+1 SD), eye blink rate significantly decreased as they waited longer to take their turn. These findings index task-related changes in midbrain dopamine activity in relation to naturalistic task demands, and that these changes may vary as a function of individual differences in effortful control and internalizing behaviors. We discuss possible top-down mechanisms that may underlie these differences.

Normalization of Fronto-Parietal Activation by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Unmedicated Pediatric Patients With Anxiety Disorders

OBJECTIVE

Anxiety disorders are prevalent among youths and are often highly impairing. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective first-line treatment. The authors investigated the brain mechanisms associated with symptom change following CBT.

METHODS

Unmedicated youths diagnosed with an anxiety disorder underwent 12 weeks of CBT as part of two randomized clinical trials testing the efficacy of adjunctive computerized cognitive training. Across both trials, participants completed a threat-processing task during functional MRI before and after treatment. Age-matched healthy comparison youths completed two scans over the same time span. The mean age of the samples was 13.20 years (SD=2.68); 41% were male (youths with anxiety disorders, N=69; healthy comparison youths, N=62). An additional sample including youths at temperamental risk for anxiety (N=87; mean age, 10.51 years [SD=0.43]; 41% male) was utilized to test the stability of anxiety-related neural differences in the absence of treatment. Whole-brain regional activation changes (thresholded at p<0.001) were examined using task-based blood-oxygen-level-dependent response.

RESULTS

Before treatment, patients with an anxiety disorder exhibited altered activation in fronto-parietal attention networks and limbic regions relative to healthy comparison children across all task conditions. Fronto-parietal hyperactivation normalized over the course of treatment, whereas limbic responses remained elevated after treatment. In the at-risk sample, overlapping clusters emerged between regions showing stable associations with anxiety over time and regions showing treatment-related changes.

CONCLUSIONS

Activation in fronto-parietal networks may normalize after CBT in unmedicated pediatric anxiety patients. Limbic regions may be less amenable to acute CBT effects. Findings from the at-risk sample suggest that treatment-related changes may not be attributed solely to the passage of time.

Optimised Multi-Channel Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (MtDCS) Reveals Differential Involvement of the Right-Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex (rVLPFC) and Insular Complex in those Predisposed to Aberrant Experiences

Research has shown a prominent role for cortical hyperexcitability underlying aberrant perceptions, hallucinations, and distortions in human conscious experience - even in neurotypical groups. The rVLPFC has been identified as an important structure in mediating cognitive affective states / feeling conscious states. The current study examined the involvement of the rVLPFC in mediating cognitive affective states in those predisposed to aberrant experiences in the neurotypical population. Participants completed two trait-based measures: (i) the Cortical Hyperexcitability Index_II (CHi_II, a proxy measure of cortical hyperexcitability) and (ii) two factors from the Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale (CDS). An optimised 7-channel MtDCS montage for stimulation conditions (Anodal, Cathodal and Sham) was created targeting the rVLPFC in a single-blind study. At the end of each stimulation session, participants completed a body-threat task (BTAB) while skin conductance responses (SCRs) and psychological responses were recorded. Participants with signs of increasing cortical hyperexcitability showed significant suppression of SCRs in the Cathodal stimulation relative to the Anodal and sSham conditions. Those high on the trait-based measures of depersonalisation-like experiences failed to show reliable effects. Collectively, the findings suggest that baseline brain states can mediate the effects of neurostimulation which would be missed via sample level averaging and without appropriate measures for stratifying individual differences.

Effects of Hyperdirect Pathway Theta Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Inhibitory Control, Craving, and Smoking in Adults With Nicotine Dependence: A Double-Blind, Randomized Crossover Trial

BACKGROUND

Nicotine dependence is associated with dysregulated hyperdirect pathway (HDP)-mediated inhibitory control (IC). However, there are currently no evidence-based treatments that have been shown to target the HDP to improve IC and reduce cigarette cravings and smoking.

METHODS

Following a baseline nonstimulation control session, this study (N = 37; female: n = 17) used a double-blind, randomized crossover design to examine the behavioral and neural effects of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and continuous TBS (cTBS) to the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG)-a key cortical node of the HDP. Associations between treatment effects were also explored.

RESULTS

At baseline, HDP IC task-state functional connectivity was positively associated with IC task performance, which confirmed the association between HDP circuit function and IC. Compared with iTBS, rIFG cTBS improved IC task performance. Compared with the baseline nonstimulation control session, both TBS conditions reduced cigarette craving and smoking; however, although craving and smoking were lower for cTBS, no differences were found between the two active conditions. In addition, although HDP IC task-state functional connectivity was greater following cTBS than iTBS, there was no significant difference between conditions. Finally, cTBS-induced improvement in IC task performance was associated with reduced craving, and cTBS-induced reduction in craving was associated with reduced smoking.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings warrant further investigation into the effects of rIFG cTBS for increasing IC and reducing craving and smoking among individuals with nicotine dependence. Future sham-controlled cTBS studies may help further elucidate the mechanisms by which rIFG cTBS mediates IC and smoking behavior.

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.

General deficits of attentional inhibition in high trait anxiety: ERP evidence

Behavioral evidence shows that individuals with high trait anxiety tend to be distracted by irrelevant stimulation not only for threat-related stimuli but also for non-emotional neutral stimuli. These findings suggest that there may be a general deficit of attentional control in trait anxiety. However, the neural mechanism underlying the anxiety-related deficit in attentional control, especially inhibition function, is still unclear. Here, we examined the attentional processing of the non-emotional neutral distractor on 66 young adults with different levels of trait anxiety, using the ERP indices of attentional selection (N2pc) and top-down inhibition (Pd) in a search task with geometric stimuli. We found that the distractor-evoked N2pc amplitude did not vary with anxiety levels, but increased anxiety was associated with smaller Pds (i.e. worse inhibition). Besides, delayed attentional selection of targets was associated with higher anxiety levels. These correlations of trait anxiety remained significant even after controlling for state anxiety, and state anxiety did not affect the attentional processing of distractors and targets, suggesting that trait anxiety, not current anxiety, affects attentional function. Our findings clarify the mechanism underlying the general attentional deficits in trait anxiety, e.g. reduced distractor inhibition and delayed target selection.

Relations Between Executive Functioning and Internalizing Symptoms Vary as a Function of Frontoparietal-amygdala Resting State Connectivity

The prefrontal cortex and the frontoparietal network are associated with a variety of regulatory behaviors. Functional connections between these brain regions and the amygdala are implicated in risk for anxiety disorders. The prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal network are also linked to executive functioning, or behaviors that help orient action towards higher order goals. Where much research has been focused on deleterious effects of under-controlled behavior, a body of work suggests that over-controlled behavior may also pose a risk for internalizing problems. Indeed, while work suggests that high levels of attention shifting may still be protective against internalizing problems, there is evidence that high levels of inhibitory control may be a risk factor for socioemotional difficulties. In the ABCD sample, which offers large sample sizes as well as sociodemographic diversity, we test the interaction between frontoparietal network-amygdala resting state functional connectivity and executive functioning behaviors on longitudinal changes in internalizing symptoms from approximately 10 to 12 years of age. We found that higher proficiency in attention shifting indeed predicts fewer internalizing behaviors over time. In addition, higher proficiency in inhibitory control predicts fewer internalizing symptoms over time, but only for children showing resting state connectivity moderately above the sample average between the frontoparietal network and amygdala. This finding supports the idea that top-down control may not be adaptive for all children, and relations between executive functioning and anxiety risk may vary as a function of trait-level regulation.

Anxious Brains: A Combined Data Fusion Machine Learning Approach to Predict Trait Anxiety from Morphometric Features

Trait anxiety relates to the steady propensity to experience and report negative emotions and thoughts such as fear and worries across different situations, along with a stable perception of the environment as characterized by threatening stimuli. Previous studies have tried to investigate neuroanatomical features related to anxiety mostly using univariate analyses and thus giving rise to contrasting results. The aim of this study is to build a predictive model of individual differences in trait anxiety from brain morphometric features, by taking advantage of a combined data fusion machine learning approach to allow generalization to new cases. Additionally, we aimed to perform a network analysis to test the hypothesis that anxiety-related networks have a central role in modulating other networks not strictly associated with anxiety. Finally, we wanted to test the hypothesis that trait anxiety was associated with specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and whether anxiety may decrease with ageing. Structural brain images of 158 participants were first decomposed into independent covarying gray and white matter networks with a data fusion unsupervised machine learning approach (Parallel ICA). Then, supervised machine learning (decision tree) and backward regression were used to extract and test the generalizability of a predictive model of trait anxiety. Two covarying gray and white matter independent networks successfully predicted trait anxiety. The first network included mainly parietal and temporal regions such as the postcentral gyrus, the precuneus, and the middle and superior temporal gyrus, while the second network included frontal and parietal regions such as the superior and middle temporal gyrus, the anterior cingulate, and the precuneus. We also found that trait anxiety was positively associated with catastrophizing, rumination, other- and self-blame, and negatively associated with positive refocusing and reappraisal. Moreover, trait anxiety was negatively associated with age. This paper provides new insights regarding the prediction of individual differences in trait anxiety from brain and psychological features and can pave the way for future diagnostic predictive models of anxiety.

Network analysis reveals abnormal functional brain circuitry in anxious dogs

Anxiety is a common disease within human psychiatric disorders and has also been described as a frequently neuropsychiatric problem in dogs. Human neuroimaging studies showed abnormal functional brain networks might be involved in anxiety. In this study, we expected similar changes in network topology are also present in dogs. We performed resting-state functional MRI on 25 healthy dogs and 13 patients. The generic Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire was used to evaluate anxiety symptoms. We constructed functional brain networks and used graph theory to compare the differences between two groups. No significant differences in global network topology were found. However, focusing on the anxiety circuit, global efficiency and local efficiency were significantly higher, and characteristic path length was significantly lower in the amygdala in patients. We detected higher connectivity between amygdala-hippocampus, amygdala-mesencephalon, amygdala-thalamus, frontal lobe-hippocampus, frontal lobe-thalamus, and hippocampus-thalamus, all part of the anxiety circuit. Moreover, correlations between network metrics and anxiety symptoms were significant. Altered network measures in the amygdala were correlated with stranger-directed fear and excitability; altered degree in the hippocampus was related to attachment/attention seeking, trainability, and touch sensitivity; abnormal frontal lobe function was related to chasing and familiar dog aggression; attachment/attention seeking was correlated with functional connectivity between amygdala-hippocampus and amygdala-thalamus; familiar dog aggression was related to global network topology change. These findings may shed light on the aberrant topological organization of functional brain networks underlying anxiety in dogs.

Effects of acute high-altitude exposure on working memory: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

INTRODUCTION

Inadequate oxygen availability may lead to impairment of neurocognitive functions. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of acute high-altitude exposure on the cerebral hemodynamic response and working memory.

METHODS

The same subjects performed working memory exercises with forward and backward digit span tasks both under normal oxygen conditions and in large simulated hypobaric hypoxia chambers, and a series of physiological parameters were evaluated. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to measure cerebral blood flow changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the tasks.

RESULTS

Compared with normoxic conditions, under hypoxic conditions, the heart rate and blood pressure increased, blood oxygen saturation decreased significantly, and the forward task had similar accuracy and response time, while the backward task had lower accuracy and longer response time. Neuroimaging analysis showed increased activation in the DLPFC during the forward task and deactivation during the backward task under hypobaric hypoxia conditions.

CONCLUSION

Acute high-altitude exposure leads to physiological adaptations. The abnormal hemodynamic responses of the DLPFC to hypoxia at low pressure reveal the disruption of neurocognitive function by acute high-altitude exposure, which compromises complex cognitive functions, and provides a promising application for functional near infrared spectroscopy in the exploration of neural mechanisms in the brain during high-altitude exposure.

The relationship between physical activity and trait anxiety in college students: The mediating role of executive function

Objectives

Aimed to analyze the mediating effect of executive function between physical activity level and trait anxiety in college students.

Methods

The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Stroop task, 1-back task, and More-odd shifting task were used to analyze 248 college students.

Results

Trait anxiety were significantly correlated with shifting function (r = 0.182, P = 0.004) and inhibition function (r = 0.163, P = 0.010) and not with working memory (r = 0.056, P = 0.385). Vigorous physical activity (VPA) was most highly correlated with inhibition function (Beta = −0.144, P = 0.024) and working memory (Beta = −0.208, P = 0.001), and light physical activity (LPA) was most highly correlated with shifting function (Beta = −0.211, P = 0.001). Physical activity had a 72.31% association with trait anxiety (B = −0.195), with 11.79% mediated by inhibition function (B = −0.023) and 15.90% by shifting function (B = −0.031).

Conclusion

College students' physical activity promotes both inhibition and shifting functions, which in turn affect trait anxiety. VPA had a direct effect, while the effect of moderate physical activity (MPA) and LPA was completely mediated exclusively through executive functions, and the mediating effect of shifting function was the highest. It is recommended that college workers should motivate students with high trait anxiety to engage in more VPA and pay attention to changes in their inhibition and shifting functions.

Behavioral and brain functional characteristics of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder and anxiety trait

The current study aimed to explore the behavioral, daily-life executive functional, and brain functional connectivity patterns in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety. A total of 246 children with non-comorbid ADHD and 91 healthy controls (HCs) participated in the current study, among whom 175 subjects went through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. The ADHD participants were divided into two subgroups: ADHD with a high level of anxiety (ADHD + ANX) and ADHD with a low level of anxiety (ADHD-ANX). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were used to capture the behavioral and daily-life executive functional characteristics. Independent component analysis with dual regression models was applied to the fMRI data. All statistical models were estimated with age and sex as covariates. Compared with the ADHD-ANX group, the ADHD + ANX group showed more withdrawn, somatic, social, thought, attention, delinquent, and aggressive problems (all corrected p < 0.05). The ADHD + ANX group also displayed more impaired emotional control and working memory than the ADHD-ANX (all corrected p < 0.05). The ADHD-ANX group, but not the ADHD + ANX group, showed elevated functional connectivity within the default mode network compared with the HC group. The mean function connectivity within the default mode network significantly mediated the correlation between anxiety level and attention problems. In sum, anxiety in children with ADHD was associated with more social, emotional, and behavioral problems, more impaired daily-life executive function, and altered brain function. Our work provides important information on the heterogeneity of ADHD.

Altered local gyrification index and corresponding resting-state functional connectivity in individuals with high test anxiety

Previous studies have reported that test anxiety is closely related to unreasonable cognitive patterns and maladaptive emotional responses. However, its underlying brain structural and functional basis has not been thoroughly studied. This study aimed to evaluate the potential difference in local gyration index (LGI) and corresponding resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) compared with low test anxiety (LTA). Twenty-six individuals with HTA and 28 individuals with LTA underwent T1-weighted structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Using FreeSurfer software, we contrasted the LGI between the HTA and LTA groups using a surface-based general linear model to map group contrasts on a vertex-by-vertex basis. By selecting the cortical regions with significant differences in the LGI analysis as the regions of interest, the seed-based RSFC analysis was further carried out using the Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit to examine the differences in the functional connectivity of these cortical regions with the whole brain between the two groups. The results showed that the LGI in several cortical regions of the executive control network (ECN) and the right lateral occipital gyrus was lower in the HTA group than in the LTA group. Furthermore, compared with the LTA group, the HTA group exhibited abnormal RSFC within the ECN, between the ECN and the visual network, and between the ECN and the sensorimotor network. Our findings might provide preliminary evidence for brain morphology and functional alterations in individuals with HTA and contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of TA. DATA STATEMENT: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request after completing a formal data sharing agreement.

Heterogeneity in PFC-amygdala connectivity in middle childhood, and concurrent interrelations with inhibitory control and anxiety symptoms

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a key brain area in considering adaptive regulatory behaviors. This includes regulatory projections to regions of the limbic system such as the amygdala, where the nature of functional connections may confer lower risk for anxiety disorders. The PFC is also associated with behaviors like executive functioning. Inhibitory control is a behavior encompassed by executive functioning and is generally viewed favorably for adaptive socioemotional development. Yet, some research suggests that high levels of inhibitory control may actually be a risk factor for some maladaptive developmental outcomes, like anxiety disorders. In a sample of 51 children ranging from 7 to 9 years old, we examined resting state functional connectivity between regions of the PFC and the amygdala. We used Subgrouping Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (S-GIMME) to identify and characterize data-driven subgroups of individuals with similar networks of connectivity between these brain regions. Generated subgroups were collapsed into children characterized by the presence or absence of recovered connections between the PFC and amygdala. For subsets of children with available data (N = 38-44), we then tested whether inhibitory control, as measured by a stop signal task, moderated the relation between these subgroups and child-reported anxiety symptoms. We found an inverse relation between stop-signal reaction times and reported count of anxiety symptoms when covarying for connectivity group, suggesting that greater inhibitory control was actually related to greater anxiety symptoms, but only when accounting for patterns of PFC-amygdala connectivity. These data suggest that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the nature of functional connections between the PFC and amygdala during this stage of development. The findings also provide support for the notion of high levels of inhibitory control as a risk factor for anxiety, but trait-level biopsychosocial factors may be important to consider in assessing the nature of risk.

The dysregulation of top-down control in individuals with high test anxiety: A resting state fMRI study

BACKGROUND

Individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) have deficits in attentional control and in stress responses when faced with tests. However, little is known about the underlying neural mechanism. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in both attention and emotion networks, therefore this study examined the neural functional dysregulation in test anxiety from the perspective of functional connectivity (FC) using bilateral ACC as the regions of interest.

METHODS

Fifty-one participants were divided into HTA (n = 23) and low test anxiety (LTA, n = 28) group according to their Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) scores. Brain imaging data in resting, preparing, and recovering phases of a modified social evaluative threat task were collected, and emotional changes were assessed.

RESULTS

Compared with the LTA group, the HTA group exhibited significantly lower FCs between the ACC and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) in all 3 phases, significantly lower FCs between the ACC and inferior parietal gyrus (IPG), and significantly higher FCs between the ACC superior temporal gyrus (STG) in the preparing phase. Moreover, in the HTA group, the resting state IPG-ACC FC was associated with their TAS score, the preparing state STG-ACC FC was associated with the increased anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with HTA have general prefrontal control deficits. When facing a test, they tend to recruit more resources to deal with high emotional interference. The dysregulated control of the ACC by the frontal-parietal network may underlie the pathophysiology of test anxiety.

Early Safety Discrimination Under Uncertainty in Trait Anxiety: An Event-Related Potential Study

Detection of safety-threat signals during uncertainty is an important mechanism of developmental anxiety disorder (AD). Although extensive research has focused on the detection of uncertain threat signals in anxious individuals, relatively little attention has been given to the identification of safety signals during uncertainty, which is an important way to relieve anxiety in individuals with AD. To investigate this phenomenon, 16 subjects with high trait anxiety (HTA) and 16 with low trait anxiety (LTA) completed a modified cue-target task in certain and uncertain stimulus blocks. In the uncertain block, the cue was followed by a threat picture or safety picture in 20% of trials, respectively; in the certain block, the cue could be followed by a threat picture or a safety picture on 100% of trials. Behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The ERP results demonstrated that LTA participants exhibited larger P2 amplitudes in the detection of safety cues than of threat cues during the uncertain block, whereas HTA participants showed significant P2 amplitudes between the safety and threat cues during the certain block, impairing the detection of safety stimuli during uncertainty. However, all participants exhibited greater N2 amplitudes following threat cues in certainty or uncertainty conditions. These findings pertaining to the P2 amplitude suggested distinctive attentional biases between HTA and LTA individuals, whereas the N2 amplitude showed association learning in uncertain conditions, compensating for safety-threat detection in HTA individuals.

Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex in rats post noise exposure

Aims

We aimed to find where and how noise‐induced cochlear hearing loss affects the central nervous system during the early state and identify the neural substrate for aberrant patterns that mediating noise‐related anxiety−/depression‐ like behaviors.

Methods

Broad band noise with 122 dB for 2 hours was conducted to induce hearing loss. We defined 0 day (N0D) and 10 days (N10D) post noise as the acute and sub‐acute period. Behavioral tests (Open field test and light/dark test) and resting‐state fMRI were computed to evaluate emotional conditions and aberrant neural activity. Functional connectivity analysis using the anterior cingulate cortex as a seed was computed to reveal the spatial distribution beyond auditory network during both periods.

Results

Anxiety−/depression‐like behaviors were found in rats with noise exposure. Between‐group analysis revealed that N0D rats displayed widespread reductions in functional connectivity, spanning primary somatosensory cortex, medial geniculate body, inferior colliculus, cingulate cortex, cerebellar lobule comparing with N10D rats and a similar pattern was also occurred in comparison with the control group.

Conclusion

Taken together, an “acoustic‐causing” network accounting for distress and gating of noise exposure related anxiety/depression was proposed.

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation to the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex may increase Potentiated Startle in healthy individuals

Background

Convergent neuroimaging and neuromodulation studies implicate the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as a key region involved in anxiety-cognition interactions. However, neuroimaging data are correlational, and neuromodulation studies often lack appropriate methodological controls. Accordingly, this work was designed to explore the role of right prefrontal cognitive control mechanisms in the expression/regulation of anxiety using continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) and threat of unpredictable shock. Based on prior neuromodulation studies, we hypothesized that the right dlPFC contributed to anxiety expression, and that cTBS should downregulate this expression.

Methods

We measured potentiated startle and performance on the Sternberg working memory paradigm in 28 healthy participants before and after 4 sessions (600 pulses/session) of active or sham cTBS. Stimulation was individualized to the right dlPFC site of maximal working memory-related activity and optimized using electric-field modeling.

Results

Compared with sham cTBS, active cTBS, which is thought to induce long-term depression-like synaptic changes, increased startle during threat of shock, but the effect was similar for predictable and unpredictable threat. As a measure of target (dis)engagement, we also showed that active but not sham cTBS decreased accuracy on the Sternberg task.

Conclusions

Counter to our initial hypothesis, cTBS to the right dlPFC made individuals more anxious, rather than less anxious. Although preliminary, these results are unlikely to be due to transient effects of the stimulation, because anxiety was measured 24 hours after cTBS. In addition, these results are unlikely to be due to off-target effects, because target disengagement was evident from the Sternberg performance data.

Fearful facial expressions reduce inhibition levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in subjects with specific phobia

BACKGROUND

Specific phobias have the highest prevalence among anxiety disorders. Cognitive control involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is crucial for coping abilities in anxiety disorders. However, there is little research on the DLPFC in specific phobia.

METHODS

Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we investigated the TMS-evoked potential component N100 in the DLPFC at rest and while watching emotional expressions. The TMS-evoked N100 provides a parameter for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-B-mediated cortical inhibition. Twenty-two drug-free subjects with specific phobia (21 females and 1 male) were compared with 26 control subjects (23 females and 3 males) regarding N100 in the DLPFC at rest and during an emotional 1-back task with fearful, angry, and neutral facial expressions.

RESULTS

At rest, we found reduced N100 amplitudes in the specific phobia compared with the control group. Furthermore, the specific phobia group showed a further reduction in N100 amplitude when memorizing fearful compared with neutral facial expressions.

CONCLUSION

There appears to be a decrease in GABA-B-mediated inhibition in the DLPFC in subjects with a specific phobia at rest. This decrease was more pronounced under emotional activation by exposure to fearful facial expressions, pointing towards additional state effects of emotional processing on inhibitory function in the DLPFC.

The anxiety-specific hippocampus-prefrontal cortex pathways links to procrastination through self-control

Procrastination, which is defined as delaying an intended course of action despite negative outcomes, is demonstrated to have a deal with negative emotion including trait anxiety. Although highly anxious individuals showed impoverished control ability, no studies have indicated the role of self-control in the relationship between trait anxiety and procrastination, and its neural correlates. To this end, we used the sliding window method to calculate the temporal deviation of dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in 312 healthy participants who underwent the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. In line with our hypothesis, higher trait anxiety is linked to more procrastination via poorer self-control. Besides, the dynamic FC analyses showed that trait anxiety was positively correlated with dynamic FC variability in hippocampus-prefrontal cortex (HPC-PFC) pathways, including left rostral hippocampus-left superior frontal gyrus (left rHPC-left SFG), and left rHPC-right middle frontal gyrus (left rHPC--MFG). Furthermore, the structural equation modeling (SEM) uncovered a mediated role of self-control in the association between the anxiety-specific brain connectivity and procrastination. These findings suggest that the HPC-PFC pathways may reflect impoverished regulatory ability over the negative thoughts for anxious individuals, and thereby incurs more procrastination, which enhances our understanding of how trait anxiety links to procrastination.

Test anxiety impairs inhibitory control processes in a performance evaluation threat situation: Evidence from ERP

Attentional Control Theory proposes that test anxiety impairs inhibitory control, and high test anxiety (HTA) individuals often allocate greater top-down attentional control resources to maintain comparable task performance compared to low test anxiety (LTA) individuals. This study examined how test anxiety impairs inhibitory control. Eighty participants were required to perform a hybrid Go/Nogo Flanker task in the performance evaluation threat or no performance evaluation threat conditions, while behavioral and EEG data were recorded. The ERP results showed that HTA participants revealed significantly larger Nogo but not incongruent related N2 amplitude than LTA participants in the threat condition. In the threat condition, HTA individuals were associated with increased recruitment of top-down attentional control resources to perform the response inhibition task but not the interference suppression task.

Whole-Brain Resting-State Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated With Pediatric Anxiety and Involuntary Attention Capture

BACKGROUND

Pediatric anxiety disorders are linked to dysfunction in multiple functional brain networks, as well as to alterations in the allocation of spatial attention. We used network-level analyses to characterize resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) alterations associated with 1) symptoms of anxiety and 2) alterations in stimulus-driven attention associated with pediatric anxiety disorders. We hypothesized that anxiety was related to altered connectivity of the frontoparietal, default mode, cingulo-opercular, and ventral attention networks and that anxiety-related connectivity alterations that include the ventral attention network would simultaneously be related to deviations in stimulus-driven attention.

METHODS

A sample of children (n = 61; mean = 10.6 years of age), approximately half of whom met criteria for a current anxiety disorder, completed a clinical assay, an attention task, and rs-fc magnetic resonance imaging scans. Network-level analyses examined whole-brain rs-fc patterns associated with clinician-rated anxiety and with involuntary capture of attention. Post hoc analyses controlled for comorbid symptoms.

RESULTS

Elevated clinician-rated anxiety was associated with altered connectivity within the cingulo-opercular network, as well as between the cingulo-opercular network and the ventral attention, default mode, and visual networks. Connectivity between the ventral attention and cingulo-opercular networks was associated with variation in both anxiety and stimulus-driven attention.

CONCLUSIONS

Pediatric anxiety is related to aberrant connectivity patterns among several networks, most of which include the cingulo-opercular network. These results help clarify the within- and between-network interactions associated with pediatric anxiety and its association with altered attention, suggesting that specific network connections could be targeted to improve specific altered processes associated with anxiety.

Cortical and subcortical contributions to interference resolution and inhibition - An fMRI ALE meta-analysis

Interacting with our environment requires the selection of appropriate responses and the inhibition of others. Such effortful inhibition is achieved by a number of interference resolution and global inhibition processes. This meta-analysis including 57 studies and 73 contrasts revisits the overlap and differences in brain areas supporting interference resolution and global inhibition in cortical and subcortical brain areas. Activation likelihood estimation was used to discern the brain regions subserving each type of cognitive control. Individual contrast analysis revealed a common activation of the bilateral insula and supplementary motor areas. Subtraction analyses demonstrated the voxel-wise differences in recruitment in a number of areas including the precuneus in the interference tasks and the frontal pole and dorsal striatum in the inhibition tasks. Our results display a surprising lack of subcortical involvement within these types of cognitive control, a finding that is likely to reflect a systematic gap in the field of functional neuroimaging.

Effects of Trait Anxiety on Error Processing and Post-error Adjustments: An Event-Related Potential Study With Stop-Signal Task

The present study aimed to use event-related potentials with the stop-signal task to investigate the effects of trait anxiety on inhibitory control, error monitoring, and post-error adjustments. The stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) was used to evaluate the behavioral competence of inhibitory control. Electrophysiological signals of error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) were used to study error perception and error awareness, respectively. Post-error slowing (PES) was applied to examine the behavioral adjustments after making errors. The results showed that SSRT and PES did not differ significantly between individuals with high trait anxiety (HTA) and those with low trait anxiety (LTA). However, individuals with HTA demonstrated reduced ERN amplitudes and prolonged Pe latencies than those with LTA. Prolonged Pe latencies were also significantly associated with poorer post-error adjustments. In conclusion, HTA led to reduced cortical responses to error monitoring. Furthermore, inefficient conscious awareness of errors might lead to maladaptive post-error adjustments.

Reduced Segregation Between Cognitive and Emotional Processes in Cannabis Dependence

Addiction is characterized by an erosion of cognitive control toward drug taking that is accentuated by negative emotional states. Here we tested the hypothesis that enhanced interference on cognitive control reflects a loss of segregation between cognition and emotion in addiction. We analyzed Human Connectome Project data from 1206 young adults, including 89 with cannabis dependence (CD). Two composite factors, one for cognition and one for emotion, were derived using principal component (PC) analyses. Component scores for these PCs were significantly associated in the CD group, such that negative emotionality correlated with poor cognition. However, the corresponding component scores were uncorrelated in matched controls and nondependent recreational cannabis users (n = 87). In CD, but not controls or recreational users, functional magnetic resonance imaging activations to emotional stimuli (angry/fearful faces > shapes) correlated with activations to cognitive demand (working memory; 2-back > 0-back). Canonical correlation analyses linked individual differences in cognitive and emotional component scores with brain activations. In CD, there was substantial overlap between cognitive and emotional brain-behavior associations, but in controls, associations were more restricted to the cognitive domain. These findings support our hypothesis of impaired segregation between cognitive and emotional processes in CD that might contribute to poor cognitive control under conditions of increased emotional demand.

Does non-invasive brain stimulation modulate emotional stress reactivity?

Excessive emotional responses to stressful events can detrimentally affect psychological functioning and mental health. Recent studies have provided evidence that non-invasive brain stimulation (NBS) targeting the prefrontal cortex (PFC) can affect the regulation of stress-related emotional responses. However, the reliability and effect sizes have not been systematically analyzed. In the present study, we reviewed and meta-analyzed the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the PFC on acute emotional stress reactivity in healthy individuals. Forty sham-controlled single-session rTMS and tDCS studies were included. Separate random effects models were performed to estimate the mean effect sizes of emotional reactivity. Twelve rTMS studies together showed no evidence that rTMS over the PFC influenced emotional reactivity. Twenty-six anodal tDCS studies yielded a weak beneficial effect on stress-related emotional reactivity (Hedges’ g = −0.16, CI_95% = [−0.33, 0.00]). These findings suggest that a single session of NBS is insufficient to induce reliable, clinically significant effects but also provide preliminary evidence that specific NBS methods can affect emotional reactivity. This may motivate further research into augmenting the efficacy of NBS protocols on stress-related processes.

Disruption of functional and structural networks in first-episode, drug-naïve adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder

BACKGROUND

Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) tend to worry exaggeratedly and uncontrollably about various daily routines. Previous studies have demonstrated that the GAD patients exhibited widespread alternations in both functional networks (FN) and structural networks (SN). However, the simultaneous alternations of the topological organization of FN, SN, as well as their couplings in GAD still remain unknown.

METHODS

Using multimodal approach, we constructed FN from resting-state functional magnetic imaging (R-fMRI) data and SN from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) data of 32 adolescent GAD patients and 25 healthy controls (HC). Graph theory analysis was employed to investigate the topological properties of FN, SN, and FN-SN coupling.

RESULTS

Compared to HC, the GAD patients showed disruptions in global (i.e., decreased clustering coefficient, global, and local efficiency) and subnetwork (i.e., reduced intermodular connections, rich club, and feeder connections) levels in FN. Abnormal global level properties (i.e., increased characteristic path length and reduced global efficiency) were also observed in SN. Altered FN-SN couplings in normalized characteristic path length and feeder connections were identified in the GAD patients. The identified network measures were correlated with anxiety severity in the GAD patients.

LIMITATIONS

The sample size of the current study is small and the cross-sectional nature can not infer causal relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings identified GAD-related topological alternations in both FN and SN, together with the couplings between FN and SN, providing us with a novel perspective for understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of GAD.

Medial prefrontal cortex encoding of stress and anxiety

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in adaptive control of behavior and optimizing action selection. When an organism is experiencing an aversive event, such as a sustained state of anxiety or an overt experience of fear or stress, the mechanisms that govern PFC regulation of action selection may be critical for survival. A large body of literature has shown that acute aversive states influence the activity of PFC neurons and the release of neurotransmitters in this region. These states also result in long-term neurobiological changes in the PFC and expression of PFC-dependent motivated behaviors. The mechanism for how these changes lead to modifying action selection is only recently beginning to emerge. Here, we review animal and human studies into the neural mechanisms which may mediate the adaptive changes in the PFC that emerge during negative affective states. We then highlight recent advances in approaches for understanding how anxiety influences action selection and related cortical processes. We conclude by proposing that PFC neurons selectively influence action encoding during conditions where actions toward obtaining a reward or avoiding harm are executed under a fog of fear and anxiety.

Enhanced or impoverished recruitment of top-down attentional control of inhibition in test anxiety

Controversy exists as to whether high test anxiety (HTA) individuals, when completing an inhibition task, increase or decrease top-down attentional control resources to maintain high task performance. In a flanker task experiment, individuals were confronted with a threat or no threat context in combination with a low or a high working memory load. The N2 measured top-down attentional control resource allocation. The results showed that, in comparison to low test anxiety (LTA) individuals, HTA individuals had larger N2 amplitudes in a no threat condition, especially for incongruent trials. Also, in a threat condition when under high working memory load, HTA individuals had smaller incongruent N2 amplitudes. These findings support the conclusion that HTA individuals tend to enhance recruitment of top-down attentional control of inhibition. Additionally, they may also fail to compensate for impaired inhibition as indicated by impoverished top-down attentional control resources when demands on attentional control are high.

Psychological power alters cognitive efficiency

Power is known to promote cognitive processing in a goal-directed way. However, it is unknown whether powerful individuals invest more resources when pursuing their goals or whether they invest their resources more efficiently. We examined how experiencing high versus low power affects the efficient investment of cognitive resources using electroencephalography (EEG). Specifically, event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the upper alpha band (10.5-12.75 Hz) was used to quantify the use of cognitive resources during task completion. Results showed that high-power participants used fewer neural resources compared to low-power participants across the whole brain but task performance did not differ between groups. These findings demonstrate that, instead of investing more resources, high-power participants performed the task with greater cognitive efficiency compared to low-power participants. Performing tasks efficiently could help powerholders deal with their demanding jobs and responsibilities.

The Role of Cognitive Complaints in the Relationship Between Trait Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, and Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being in Adult Community Volunteers

PURPOSE

Trait anxiety, depressive symptoms, and cognitive complaints affect mental health. The mediating role of cognitive complaints has been reported recently. However, the mediating effects of cognitive complaints in the relationships between trait anxiety, depressive symptoms, and subjective well-being (SWB) and ill-being (SIB) remain unknown. Therefore, we used path analyses to investigate these mediating effects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 554 adult community volunteers in Japan were studied using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y), Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Cognitive Complaints in Bipolar Disorder Rating Assessment, and Subjective Well-Being Inventory. These assessment tools evaluated trait anxiety, depressive symptoms, cognitive complaints, SWB, and SIB. Path analyses were performed in this study.

RESULTS

Path analyses revealed that there were significant indirect effects, via cognitive complaints, of trait anxiety and depressive symptoms on SIB. However, there were no significant indirect effects of trait anxiety and depressive symptoms on SWB. There were significant indirect effects, via depressive symptoms, of trait anxiety on cognitive complaints, SWB, and SIB.

CONCLUSION

The role of cognitive complaints may be different between SWB and SIB associated with trait anxiety and depressive symptoms. Evaluating the mediating effect of cognitive complaints may be more useful on SIB than SWB associated with trait anxiety and depressive symptoms. These findings may be useful when considering intervention targets in mental health.

Patients with anxiety disorders rely on bilateral dlPFC activation during verbal working memory

One of the hallmarks of anxiety disorders is impaired cognitive control, affecting working memory (WM). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is critical for WM; however, it is still unclear how dlPFC activity relates to WM impairments in patients. Forty-one healthy volunteers and 32 anxiety (general and/or social anxiety disorder) patients completed the Sternberg WM paradigm during safety and unpredictable shock threat. On each trial, a series of letters was presented, followed by brief retention and response intervals. On low- and high-load trials, subjects retained the series (five and eight letters, respectively) in the original order, while on sort trials, subjects rearranged the series (five letters) in alphabetical order. We sampled the blood oxygenation level-dependent activity during retention using a bilateral anatomical dlPFC mask. Compared to controls, patients showed increased reaction time during high-load trials, greater right dlPFC activity and reduced dlPFC activity during threat. These results suggest that WM performance for patients and controls may rely on distinct patterns of dlPFC activity with patients requiring bilateral dlPFC activity. These results are consistent with reduced efficiency of WM in anxiety patients. This reduced efficiency may be due to an inefficient allocation of dlPFC resources across hemispheres or a decreased overall dlPFC capacity.

But first, coffee: The roles of arousal and inhibition in the resistance of compulsive cleansing in individuals with high contamination fears

Inhibition plays a crucial role in reducing intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, such as handwashing, in response to the feeling of disgust. The current study examines whether manipulating arousal can facilitate inhibition and the resistance of compulsive cleansing. Forty-seven participants with high contamination fears were recruited for this study. Participants were divided into a caffeine group or a no-caffeine group. Participants touched a potentially contaminated and disgusting stimulus ("dirty" diapers) and were asked to wait as long as they could before washing their hands. Only the caffeine group exhibited greater pre-post stop-signal reaction time improvement in the stop-signal task, indicating improved inhibition. Participants in the caffeine group exhibited significantly lower subjective distress and urges-to-wash their hands both after touching the stimulus and while waiting to engage in the cleansing behavior. Similarly, the caffeine group resisted the urge to compulsively cleanse for about twice as long as those in the no-caffeine group. Time spent washing, subjective distress levels, and urge-to-wash levels after participants washed their hands were similar between groups. The current findings support the notion that increased arousal improves inhibition, which may play a role in improving our ability to resist intrusive disgust and compulsive cleansing behaviors.

Greater Dynamic and Lower Static Functional Brain Connectivity Prospectively Predict Placebo Response in Pediatric Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Objectives: Placebo response is one of the most significant barriers to detecting treatment effects in pediatric (and adult) clinical trials focusing on affective and anxiety disorders. We sought to identify neurofunctional predictors of placebo response in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) by examining dynamic and static functional brain connectivity. Methods: Before randomization to blinded placebo, adolescents, aged 12-17 years, with GAD (N = 25) underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Whole brain voxelwise correlation analyses were used to determine the relationship between change in anxiety symptoms from baseline to week 8 and seed-based dynamic and static functional connectivity maps of regions in the salience and ventral attention networks (amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex [dACC], and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex [VLPFC]). Results: Greater dynamic functional connectivity variability in amygdala, dACC, VLPFC, and regions within salience, default mode, and frontoparietal networks was associated with greater placebo response. Lower static functional connectivity between amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex, dACC and posterior cingulate cortex and greater static functional connectivity between VLPFC and inferior parietal lobule were associated with greater placebo response. Conclusion: Placebo response is associated with a distinct dynamic and static connectivity fingerprint characterized by "variable" dynamic but "weak" static connectivity in the salience, default mode, frontoparietal, and ventral attention networks. These data provide granular evidence of how circuit-based biotypes mechanistically relate to placebo response. Finding biosignatures that predict placebo response is critically important in clinical psychopharmacology and to improve our ability to detect medication-placebo differences in clinical trials.

Connectivity Correlates of Anxiety Symptoms in Drug-Naive Parkinson's Disease Patients

BACKGROUND

Anxiety symptoms are common in Parkinson's disease (PD). A link between anxiety and cognitive impairment in PD has been demonstrated.

OBJECTIVES

Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated intrinsic brain network connectivity correlates of anxiety symptoms in a cohort of drug-naive, cognitively unimpaired patients with PD.

METHODS

The intrinsic functional brain connectivity of 25 drug-naive, cognitively unimpaired PD patients with anxiety, 25 without anxiety, and 20 matched healthy controls was compared. All patients underwent a detailed behavioral and neuropsychological evaluation. Anxiety presence and severity were assessed using the Parkinson's Disease Anxiety Scale. Single-subject and group-level independent component analyses were used to investigate functional connectivity differences within and between the major resting-state networks.

RESULTS

Decreased connectivity within the default-mode and sensorimotor networks (SMN), increased connectivity within the executive-control network (ECN), and divergent connectivity measures within salience and frontoparietal networks (SN and FPN) were detected in PD patients with anxiety compared with those without anxiety. Moreover, patients with anxiety showed a disrupted inter-network connectivity between SN and SMN, ECN, and FPN. Anxiety severity was correlated with functional abnormalities within these networks.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated that an abnormal intrinsic connectivity within and between the most reported large-scale networks may represent a potential neural correlate of anxiety symptoms in drug-naive PD patients even in the absence of clinically relevant cognitive impairment. We hypothesize that these specific cognitive and limbic network architecture changes may represent a potential biomarker of treatment response in clinical trials. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Neurovisceral integration in the executive control network: A resting state analysis

Neurovisceral integration models emphasize the role of frontal lobes in cognitive, behavioral, and emotional regulation. Two candidate hubs for the regulation of cardio-autonomic control, anxiety, and executive attention are the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Two-hundred and seventy-one adults (62.9 % female) aged 18-85 years were selected from the NKI-Rockland Sample. Resting state functional imaging data was preprocessed, and seeds extracted from bilateral DLPFC and MFG to test 4 regression models predicting connectivity with high frequency HRV (HF-HRV), trait anxiety (TA), and reaction time on an executive attention task. After controlling for age, sex, body mass index and head motion, the right DLPFC-MFG seed pair provided strongest support for neurovisceral integration indexed by HF-HRV, low TA and shorter reaction time on the attention network task. This hemispheric effect may underlie the inhibitory role of right PFC in the regulation of cardio-autonomic function, emotion, and executive attention.

A Disruption in the Balance of Attentional Systems Plays a Role in Trait Anxiety

Elevated levels of anxiety are associated with attentional threat biases and inefficient attentional control, with the latter requiring sustained cognitive effort. The current study assessed self-reported and behavioral evidence of attentional functioning, along with electrodermal activity (EDA; measured via changes in skin conductance level [SCL reactivity]) as an index of sympathetic arousal, to examine whether these vulnerabilities are evident among individuals with elevated trait anxiety (non-clinical). Fifty-nine participants completed a working memory span task measuring attentional control under high cognitive load. A visual change detection task assessed stimulus-driven attention as an indicator of vigilance to non-threatening visual information. Trait anxiety was self-reported. SCL was captured at rest and during the working memory task. Results revealed that trait anxiety was positively related to speed of visual change detection, without accuracy costs, suggesting enhanced vigilance for neutral visual information among those higher in trait anxiety. Trait anxiety also moderated the relation between change detection speed and attentional control, such that attentional vigilance was not associated with variation in attentional control for individuals higher in trait anxiety. However, for individuals lower in trait anxiety, vigilance was negatively associated with attention control. The relationship between vigilance and attentional control was also moderated by SCL reactivity such that the association was only significant at lower SCL reactivity levels. Taken together, results suggest that individuals higher in trait anxiety demonstrate greater attentional control in the service of visual detection, but greater attentional control may come at the cost of increased sympathetic arousal.

Masking effects on subjective annoyance to aircraft flyover noise: An fMRI study

Sound masking, a new noise control technology, has been applied to improve subjective perception of noise in recent years. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this technology are still unclear. In this study, 18 healthy subjects were recurited to take subjective annoyance assessments and fMRI scanning with the aircraft noise and the masked aircraft noise. The results showed that the noise annoyance was associated with deficient functional connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex and exceeded brain activation in ACC, which might be explained as compensation. The sound masking led to significantly strong activation in the left medial frontal cortex and right medial orbital frontal cortex, which were associated with happy emotion induced by sound masking. This study offered new insights on the underlying neural mechanisms of sound masking effects.

Trait and state anxiety are mapped differently in the human brain

Anxiety is a mental state characterized by an intense sense of tension, worry or apprehension, relative to something adverse that might happen in the future. Researchers differentiate aspects of anxiety into state and trait, respectively defined as a more transient reaction to an adverse situation, and as a more stable personality attribute in experiencing events. It is yet unclear whether brain structural and functional features may distinguish these aspects of anxiety. To study this, we assessed 42 healthy participants with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and then investigated with MRI to characterize structural grey matter covariance and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC). We found several differences in the structural-functional patterns across anxiety types: (1) trait anxiety was associated to both structural covariance of Default Mode Network (DMN), with an increase in dorsal nodes and a decrease in its ventral part, and to rs-FC of DMN within frontal regions; (2) state anxiety, instead, was widely related to rs-FC of Salience Network and of DMN, specifically in its ventral nodes, but not associated with any structural pattern. In conclusion, our study provides evidence of a neuroanatomical and functional distinction between state and trait anxiety. These neural features may be additional markers in future studies evaluating early diagnosis or treatment effects.

Serotonergic influence on depressive symptoms and trait anxiety is mediated by negative life events and frontal activation in children and adolescents

Depression and anxiety are common in childhood and adolescence. Even though cardinal symptoms differ, there is a considerable overlap regarding the pathogenic influence of serotonergic innervation, negative life experience, disturbed emotion perception/affect regulation, and impaired neural functioning in the fronto-limbic circuit. In this study, we examined the effect of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype on depressive symptoms and trait anxiety under the consideration of the amount of negative life events in healthy children and adolescents (N = 389). In a subsample of 49 subjects, we performed fMRI to add fronto-limbic brain activation as a second interacting factor. Across all subjects, negative life events moderated the influence of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype on both depressive symptoms and trait anxiety. In the fMRI subsample, 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 S + S/L_G + S/L_A + L_GL_A + L_GL_G genotype-associated left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) activation mediated the influence of 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype on depressive symptoms, however, only in combination with negative life events. Genetic influence on trait anxiety was predominantly mediated by negative life events; only L_AL_A genotype-specific activation in the right MFG worked as a mediator in combination with negative life events. The present findings hint towards distinct mechanisms mediating the influence of 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype on depressive symptoms and anxiety, with negative life events playing a crucial role in both phenotypes. With regard to depressive symptoms, however, this influence was only visible in combination with MFG activation, whereas, in anxiety, it was independent of brain activation.