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Banai Tizkar R, McIver L, Wood CM, Roberts AC. Subcallosal area 25: Its responsivity to the stress hormone cortisol and its opposing effects on appetitive motivation in marmosets. Neurobiol Stress 2024; 31:100637. [PMID: 38741617 PMCID: PMC11089406 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2024] [Revised: 04/10/2024] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Aberrant activity in caudal subcallosal anterior cingulate cortex (scACC) is implicated in depression and anxiety symptomatology, with its normalisation a putative biomarker of successful treatment response. The function of scACC in emotion processing and mental health is not fully understood despite its known influence on stress-mediated processes through its rich expression of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors. Here we examine the causal interaction between area 25 within scACC (scACC-25) and the stress hormone, cortisol, in the context of anhedonia and anxiety-like behaviour. In addition, the overall role of scACC-25 in hedonic capacity and motivation is investigated under transient pharmacological inactivation and overactivation. The results suggest that a local increase of cortisol in scACC-25 shows a rapid induction of anticipatory anhedonia and increased responsiveness to uncertain threat. Separate inactivation and overactivation of scACC-25 increased and decreased motivation and hedonic capacity, respectively, likely through different underlying mechanisms. Together, these data show that area scACC-25 has a causal role in consummatory and motivational behaviour and produces rapid responses to the stress hormone cortisol, that mediates anhedonia and anxiety-like behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rana Banai Tizkar
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK
| | - Lauren McIver
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK
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2
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Wang L, Tseng YT, Schaefke B, Wei P, He S. Reply to 'Fear, anxiety and the functional architecture of the human central extended amygdala'. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024:10.1038/s41583-024-00834-w. [PMID: 38858580 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00834-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Liping Wang
- Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Brain-inspired Intelligence Technology, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Yu-Ting Tseng
- Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Brain-inspired Intelligence Technology, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Bernhard Schaefke
- Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Brain-inspired Intelligence Technology, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Pengfei Wei
- Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Brain-inspired Intelligence Technology, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Sheng He
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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3
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Shackman AJ, Grogans SE, Fox AS. Fear, anxiety and the functional architecture of the human central extended amygdala. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024:10.1038/s41583-024-00832-y. [PMID: 38858579 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00832-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA.
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA.
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA.
| | - Shannon E Grogans
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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Hur J, Tillman RM, Kim HC, Didier P, Anderson AS, Islam S, Stockbridge MD, De Los Reyes A, DeYoung KA, Smith JF, Shackman AJ. Adolescent social anxiety is associated with diminished discrimination of anticipated threat and safety in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.10.30.564701. [PMID: 38853920 PMCID: PMC11160578 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.30.564701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
Social anxiety-which typically emerges in adolescence-lies on a continuum and, when extreme, can be devastating. Socially anxious individuals are prone to heightened fear, anxiety, and the avoidance of contexts associated with potential social scrutiny. Yet most neuroimaging research has focused on acute social threat. Much less attention has been devoted to understanding the neural systems recruited during the uncertain anticipation of potential encounters with social threat. Here we used a novel fMRI paradigm to probe the neural circuitry engaged during the anticipation and acute presentation of threatening faces and voices in a racially diverse sample of 66 adolescents selectively recruited to encompass a range of social anxiety and enriched for clinically significant levels of distress and impairment. Results demonstrated that adolescents with more severe social anxiety symptoms experience heightened distress when anticipating encounters with social threat, and reduced discrimination of uncertain social threat and safety in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), a key division of the central extended amygdala (EAc). Although the EAc-including the BST and central nucleus of the amygdala-was robustly engaged by the acute presentation of threatening faces and voices, the degree of EAc engagement was unrelated to the severity of social anxiety. Together, these observations provide a neurobiologically grounded framework for conceptualizing adolescent social anxiety and set the stage for the kinds of prospective-longitudinal and mechanistic research that will be necessary to determine causation and, ultimately, to develop improved interventions for this often-debilitating illness.
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Misra J, Pessoa L. Brain dynamics and spatiotemporal trajectories during threat processing. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.06.588389. [PMID: 38617278 PMCID: PMC11014591 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.06.588389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
In the past decades, functional MRI research has investigated mental states and their brain bases in largely static fashion based on evoked responses during blocked and event-related designs. Despite some progress in naturalistic designs, our understanding of threat processing remains largely limited to those obtained with standard paradigms. In the present paper, we applied Switching Linear Dynamical Systems to uncover the dynamics of threat processing during a continuous threat-of-shock paradigm. Importantly, unlike studies in systems neuroscience that frequently assume that systems are decoupled from external inputs, we characterized both endogenous and exogenous contributions to dynamics. First, we demonstrated that the SLDS model learned the regularities of the experimental paradigm, such that states and state transitions estimated from fMRI time series data from 85 ROIs reflected both the proximity of the circles and their direction (approach vs. retreat). After establishing that the model captured key properties of threat-related processing, we characterized the dynamics of the states and their transitions. The results revealed that threat processing can profitably be viewed in terms of dynamic multivariate patterns whose trajectories are a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that jointly determine how the brain temporally evolves during dynamic threat. We propose that viewing threat processing through the lens of dynamical systems offers important avenues to uncover properties of the dynamics of threat that are not unveiled with standard experimental designs and analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joyneel Misra
- Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Luiz Pessoa
- Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
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6
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Feola B, Beermann A, Manzanarez Felix K, Coleman M, Bouix S, Holt DJ, Lewandowski KE, Öngür D, Breier A, Shenton ME, Heckers S, Brady RO, Blackford JU, Ward HB. Data-driven, connectome-wide analysis identifies psychosis-specific brain correlates of fear and anxiety. Mol Psychiatry 2024:10.1038/s41380-024-02512-w. [PMID: 38503924 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02512-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Revised: 02/27/2024] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024]
Abstract
Decades of psychosis research highlight the prevalence and the clinical significance of negative emotions, such as fear and anxiety. Translational evidence demonstrates the pivotal role of the amygdala in fear and anxiety. However, most of these approaches have used hypothesis-driven analyses with predefined regions of interest. A data-driven analysis may provide a complimentary, unbiased approach to identifying brain correlates of fear and anxiety. The aim of the current study was to identify the brain basis of fear and anxiety in early psychosis and controls using a data-driven approach. We analyzed data from the Human Connectome Project for Early Psychosis, a multi-site study of 125 people with psychosis and 58 controls with resting-state fMRI and clinical characterization. Multivariate pattern analysis of whole-connectome data was used to identify shared and psychosis-specific brain correlates of fear and anxiety using the NIH Toolbox Fear-Affect and Fear-Somatic Arousal scales. We then examined clinical correlations of Fear-Affect scores and connectivity patterns. Individuals with psychosis had higher levels of Fear-Affect scores than controls (p < 0.05). The data-driven analysis identified a cluster encompassing the amygdala and hippocampus where connectivity was correlated with Fear-Affect score (p < 0.005) in the entire sample. The strongest correlate of Fear-Affect was between this cluster and the anterior insula and stronger connectivity was associated with higher Fear-Affect scores (r = 0.31, p = 0.0003). The multivariate pattern analysis also identified a psychosis-specific correlate of Fear-Affect score between the amygdala/hippocampus cluster and a cluster in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Higher Fear-Affect scores were correlated with stronger amygdala/hippocampal-VMPFC connectivity in the early psychosis group (r = 0.33, p = 0.002), but not in controls (r = -0.15, p = 0.28). The current study provides evidence for the transdiagnostic role of the amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior insula in the neural basis of fear and anxiety and suggests a psychosis-specific relationship between fear and anxiety symptoms and amygdala/hippocampal-VMPFC connectivity. Our novel data-driven approach identifies novel, psychosis-specific treatment targets for fear and anxiety symptoms and provides complimentary evidence to decades of hypothesis-driven approaches examining the brain basis of threat processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandee Feola
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Adam Beermann
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Michael Coleman
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sylvain Bouix
- Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology, École de technologie supérieure, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Daphne J Holt
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Dost Öngür
- McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alan Breier
- Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Martha E Shenton
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stephan Heckers
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Roscoe O Brady
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
- McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jennifer Urbano Blackford
- Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
| | - Heather Burrell Ward
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
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7
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Levitas DJ, James TW. Dynamic threat-reward neural processing under semi-naturalistic ecologically relevant scenarios. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26648. [PMID: 38445552 PMCID: PMC10915741 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Studies of affective neuroscience have typically employed highly controlled, static experimental paradigms to investigate the neural underpinnings of threat and reward processing in the brain. Yet our knowledge of affective processing in more naturalistic settings remains limited. Specifically, affective studies generally examine threat and reward features separately and under brief time periods, despite the fact that in nature organisms are often exposed to the simultaneous presence of threat and reward features for extended periods. To study the neural mechanisms of threat and reward processing under distinct temporal profiles, we created a modified version of the PACMAN game that included these environmental features. We also conducted two automated meta-analyses to compare the findings from our semi-naturalistic paradigm to those from more constrained experiments. Overall, our results revealed a distributed system of regions sensitive to threat imminence and a less distributed system related to reward imminence, both of which exhibited overlap yet neither of which involved the amygdala. Additionally, these systems broadly overlapped with corresponding meta-analyses, with the notable absence of the amygdala in our findings. Together, these findings suggest a shared system for salience processing that reveals a heightened sensitivity toward environmental threats compared to rewards when both are simultaneously present in an environment. The broad correspondence of our findings to meta-analyses, consisting of more tightly controlled paradigms, illustrates how semi-naturalistic studies can corroborate previous findings in the literature while also potentially uncovering novel mechanisms resulting from the nuances and contexts that manifest in such dynamic environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel J. Levitas
- Department of Psychological and Brain SciencesIndiana UniversityBloomingtonIndianaUSA
| | - Thomas W. James
- Department of Psychological and Brain SciencesIndiana UniversityBloomingtonIndianaUSA
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8
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Sladky R, Kargl D, Haubensak W, Lamm C. An active inference perspective for the amygdala complex. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:223-236. [PMID: 38103984 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 11/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
The amygdala is a heterogeneous network of subcortical nuclei with central importance in cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Various experimental designs in human psychology and animal model research have mapped multiple conceptual frameworks (e.g., valence/salience and decision making) to ever more refined amygdala circuitry. However, these predominantly bottom up-driven accounts often rely on interpretations tailored to a specific phenomenon, thus preventing comprehensive and integrative theories. We argue here that an active inference model of amygdala function could unify these fractionated approaches into an overarching framework for clearer empirical predictions and mechanistic interpretations. This framework embeds top-down predictive models, informed by prior knowledge and belief updating, within a dynamical system distributed across amygdala circuits in which self-regulation is implemented by continuously tracking environmental and homeostatic demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronald Sladky
- Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria.
| | - Dominic Kargl
- Department of Neuronal Cell Biology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 4, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Wulf Haubensak
- Department of Neuronal Cell Biology, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 4, 1090 Vienna, Austria; Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Campus Vienna Biocenter 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
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9
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Liu X, Jiao G, Zhou F, Kendrick KM, Yao D, Gong Q, Xiang S, Jia T, Zhang XY, Zhang J, Feng J, Becker B. A neural signature for the subjective experience of threat anticipation under uncertainty. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1544. [PMID: 38378947 PMCID: PMC10879105 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45433-6] [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] [Received: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Uncertainty about potential future threats and the associated anxious anticipation represents a key feature of anxiety. However, the neural systems that underlie the subjective experience of threat anticipation under uncertainty remain unclear. Combining an uncertainty-variation threat anticipation paradigm that allows precise modulation of the level of momentary anxious arousal during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with multivariate predictive modeling, we train a brain model that accurately predicts subjective anxious arousal intensity during anticipation and test it across 9 samples (total n = 572, both gender). Using publicly available datasets, we demonstrate that the whole-brain signature specifically predicts anxious anticipation and is not sensitive in predicting pain, general anticipation or unspecific emotional and autonomic arousal. The signature is also functionally and spatially distinguishable from representations of subjective fear or negative affect. We develop a sensitive, generalizable, and specific neuroimaging marker for the subjective experience of uncertain threat anticipation that can facilitate model development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiqin Liu
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Guojuan Jiao
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Feng Zhou
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
- MOE Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Chongqing, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Dezhong Yao
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qiyong Gong
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- Department of Radiology, West China Xiamen Hospital of Sichuan University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
| | - Shitong Xiang
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianye Jia
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
- The Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), ISTBI, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Xiao-Yong Zhang
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
| | - Jianfeng Feng
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
- MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
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10
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Hedley FE, Larsen E, Mohanty A, Liu JZ, Jin J. Understanding anxiety through uncertainty quantification. Br J Psychol 2024. [PMID: 38217080 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12693] [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: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Uncertainty has been a central concept in psychological theories of anxiety. However, this concept has been plagued by divergent connotations and operationalizations. The lack of consensus hinders the current search for cognitive and biological mechanisms of anxiety, jeopardizes theory creation and comparison, and restrains translation of basic research into improved diagnoses and interventions. Drawing upon uncertainty decomposition in Bayesian Decision Theory, we propose a well-defined conceptual structure of uncertainty in cognitive and clinical sciences, with a focus on anxiety. We discuss how this conceptual structure provides clarity and can be naturally applied to existing frameworks of psychopathology research. Furthermore, it allows formal quantification of various types of uncertainty that can benefit both research and clinical practice in the era of computational psychiatry.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emmett Larsen
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
| | - Aprajita Mohanty
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
| | - Jeremiah Zhe Liu
- Google Research, Mountain View, California, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jingwen Jin
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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11
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Cardoner N, Andero R, Cano M, Marin-Blasco I, Porta-Casteràs D, Serra-Blasco M, Via E, Vicent-Gil M, Portella MJ. Impact of Stress on Brain Morphology: Insights into Structural Biomarkers of Stress-related Disorders. Curr Neuropharmacol 2024; 22:935-962. [PMID: 37403395 PMCID: PMC10845094 DOI: 10.2174/1570159x21666230703091435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Revised: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Exposure to acute and chronic stress has a broad range of structural effects on the brain. The brain areas commonly targeted in the stress response models include the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex. Studies in patients suffering from the so-called stress-related disorders -embracing post-traumatic stress, major depressive and anxiety disorders- have fairly replicated animal models of stress response -particularly the neuroendocrine and the inflammatory models- by finding alterations in different brain areas, even in the early neurodevelopment. Therefore, this narrative review aims to provide an overview of structural neuroimaging findings and to discuss how these studies have contributed to our knowledge of variability in response to stress and the ulterior development of stress-related disorders. There are a gross number of studies available but neuroimaging research of stress-related disorders as a single category is still in its infancy. Although the available studies point at particular brain circuitries involved in stress and emotion regulation, the pathophysiology of these abnormalities -involving genetics, epigenetics and molecular pathways-, their relation to intraindividual stress responses -including personality characteristics, self-perception of stress conditions…-, and their potential involvement as biomarkers in diagnosis, treatment prescription and prognosis are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Narcís Cardoner
- Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB SANT PAU), Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine Bellaterra, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Unitat de Neurociència Traslacional, Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT), Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Raül Andero
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Unitat de Neurociència Traslacional, Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT), Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
- Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
- Departament de Psicobiologia i de Metodologia de les Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marta Cano
- Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB SANT PAU), Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ignacio Marin-Blasco
- Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Daniel Porta-Casteràs
- Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB SANT PAU), Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine Bellaterra, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Unitat de Neurociència Traslacional, Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT), Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Maria Serra-Blasco
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Programa eHealth ICOnnecta't, Institut Català d'Oncologia, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Esther Via
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research Group, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Muriel Vicent-Gil
- Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB SANT PAU), Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Maria J. Portella
- Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB SANT PAU), Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine Bellaterra, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
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Blanchard DC, Canteras NS. In Search of the Behavioral and Neural Basis for Differentiating Fear and Anxiety. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY GLOBAL OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 4:394-395. [PMID: 38298787 PMCID: PMC10829656 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.05.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2023] [Revised: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- D. Caroline Blanchard
- Pacific Bioscience Research Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Manoa, Hawaii
- Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Newton S. Canteras
- Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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Rodrigues-Ribeiro L, Resende BL, Pinto Dias ML, Lopes MR, de Barros LLM, Moraes MA, Verano-Braga T, Souza BR. Neuroproteomics: Unveiling the Molecular Insights of Psychiatric Disorders with a Focus on Anxiety Disorder and Depression. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2024; 1443:103-128. [PMID: 38409418 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-50624-6_6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Anxiety and depression are two of the most common mental disorders worldwide, with a lifetime prevalence of up to 30%. These disorders are complex and have a variety of overlapping factors, including genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors. Current pharmacological treatments for anxiety and depression are not perfect. Many patients do not respond to treatment, and those who do often experience side effects. Animal models are crucial for understanding the complex pathophysiology of both disorders. These models have been used to identify potential targets for new treatments, and they have also been used to study the effects of environmental factors on these disorders. Recent proteomic methods and technologies are providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms of anxiety disorder and depression. These methods have been used to identify proteins that are altered in these disorders, and they have also been used to study the effects of pharmacological treatments on protein expression. Together, behavioral and proteomic research will help elucidate the factors involved in anxiety disorder and depression. This knowledge will improve preventive strategies and lead to the development of novel treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Rodrigues-Ribeiro
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, National Institute of Science and Technology in Nanobiopharmaceutics (INCT-Nanobiofar), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Proteomics Group (NPF), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Bruna Lopes Resende
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Laboratory of Neurodevelopment and Evolution (NeuroDEv), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Maria Luiza Pinto Dias
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, National Institute of Science and Technology in Nanobiopharmaceutics (INCT-Nanobiofar), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Proteomics Group (NPF), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Megan Rodrigues Lopes
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, National Institute of Science and Technology in Nanobiopharmaceutics (INCT-Nanobiofar), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Proteomics Group (NPF), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Laboratory of Neurodevelopment and Evolution (NeuroDEv), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Larissa Luppi Monteiro de Barros
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, National Institute of Science and Technology in Nanobiopharmaceutics (INCT-Nanobiofar), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Proteomics Group (NPF), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Muiara Aparecida Moraes
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Laboratory of Neurodevelopment and Evolution (NeuroDEv), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Thiago Verano-Braga
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, National Institute of Science and Technology in Nanobiopharmaceutics (INCT-Nanobiofar), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Proteomics Group (NPF), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
| | - Bruno Rezende Souza
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Laboratory of Neurodevelopment and Evolution (NeuroDEv), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
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Zanoaga MD, Friligkou E, He J, Pathak GA, Koller D, Cabrera-Mendoza B, Stein MB, Polimanti R. Brainwide Mendelian Randomization Study of Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms. Biol Psychiatry 2023:S0006-3223(23)01718-3. [PMID: 37967698 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND To gain insights into the role of brain structure and function on anxiety (ANX), we conducted a genetically informed investigation leveraging information from ANX genome-wide association studies available from the UK Biobank (n = 380,379), the FinnGen Program (n = 290,361), and the Million Veteran Program (n = 175,163) together with UK Biobank genome-wide data (n = 33,224) related to 3935 brain imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs). METHODS A genetic correlation analysis between ANX and brain IDPs was performed using linkage disequilibrium score regression. To investigate ANX-brain associations, a 2-sample Mendelian randomization was performed considering multiple methods and sensitivity analyses. A subsequent multivariable Mendelian randomization was conducted to distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Finally, a generalized linear model was used to explore the associations of brain IDPs with ANX symptoms. RESULTS After false discovery rate correction (q < .05), we identified 41 brain IDPs genetically correlated with ANX without heterogeneity among the datasets investigated (i.e., UK Biobank, FinnGen, and Million Veteran Program). Six of these IDPs showed genetically inferred causal effects on ANX. In the subsequent multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis, reduced area of the right posterior middle cingulate gyrus (β = -0.09, p = 8.01 × 10-4) and reduced gray matter volume of the right anterior superior temporal gyrus (β = -0.09, p = 1.55 × 10-3) had direct effects on ANX. In the ANX symptom-level analysis, the right posterior middle cingulate gyrus was negatively associated with "tense, sore, or aching muscles during the worst period of anxiety" (β = -0.13, p = 8.26 × 10-6). CONCLUSIONS This study identified genetically inferred effects that are generalizable across large cohorts, thereby contributing to our understanding of how changes in brain structure and function can lead to ANX.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihaela-Diana Zanoaga
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Eleni Friligkou
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut
| | - Jun He
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut
| | - Gita A Pathak
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut
| | - Dora Koller
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Genetics, Microbiology, and Statistics, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut
| | - Murray B Stein
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California; Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California; Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
| | - Renato Polimanti
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
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15
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Magalhães LS, Strelow DN, Paim MP, Rech TDST, Krüger LD, Braga AL, Neto JSS, Brüning CA, Bortolatto CF. Anxiolytic-like action of 3-((4-methoxyphenyl)selanyl)-2-phenylbenzofuran (SeBZF3) in mice: A possible contribution of the serotonergic system. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2023; 232:173651. [PMID: 37793485 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2023.173651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2023] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Anxiety disorders, characterized by high prevalence rates, cause psychiatric disabilities and are related to impairments in serotoninergic system function. Frequent anxiety recurrence, resistance, and drug adverse effects have driven searches for new therapies. We initially evaluated the anxiolytic-like activity of 3-selanyl-benzo[b]furan compounds (SeBZF1-5) (50 mg/kg, i.g.) in male Swiss mice using the light-dark test (LDT). The compound 3-((4-methoxyphenyl)selanyl)-2-phenylbenzofuran (SeBZF3) exhibited anxiolytic-like activity. SeBZF3 anxiolytic-like effects were also observed in the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT) (50 mg/kg) and elevated plus-maze test (EPMT) (25 and 50 mg/kg). In the EPMT, anxiolytic-like effects of SeBZF3 (50 mg/kg) were abolished by pretreatment with p-chlorophenylalanine, a selective tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor (100 mg/kg, i.p. for 4 days), suggesting the involvement of serotonergic mechanisms. Furthermore, we conducted experiments to investigate the synergistic effects of SeBZF3 subeffective doses (5 mg/kg, i.g.) in combination with fluoxetine (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, 5 mg/kg, i.p.) or buspirone (a partial agonist of the 5-HT1A receptor, 2 mg/kg, i.p.). This coadministration resulted in pronounced synergistic effects. We also examined the effects of repeated oral treatment with SeBZF3 at doses of 1 and 5 mg/kg over 14 days and both reduced anxiety signals. In vitro and ex vivo findings revealed that SeBZF3 inhibited cerebral MAO-A activity. These findings collectively imply the potential involvement of serotonergic mechanisms in the anxiolytic-like activity of SeBZF3 in mice. These data offer contributions to the research field of organoselenium compounds and anxiolytics, encouraging the broadening of the search for new effective drugs while offering improved side effect profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larissa Sander Magalhães
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
| | - Dianer Nornberg Strelow
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
| | - Mariana Parron Paim
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
| | - Taís da Silva Teixeira Rech
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
| | - Letícia Devantier Krüger
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
| | - Antonio Luiz Braga
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Química (PPGQ), Laboratório de Síntese de Derivados de Selênio e Telúrio (LabSelen), Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, CEP 88040- 900 Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
| | | | - César Augusto Brüning
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
| | - Cristiani Folharini Bortolatto
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Neurofarmacologia Molecular (LABIONEM), Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), CEP 96010-900, Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
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Wilson KA, MacNamara A. Transdiagnostic Fear and Anxiety: Prospective Prediction Using the No-Threat, Predictable Threat, and Unpredictable Threat Task. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY GLOBAL OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 3:930-938. [PMID: 37881540 PMCID: PMC10593901 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Fear and anxiety are distinct dimensions of psychopathology that may be characterized by differences in dimensional threat reactivity. Heightened response to predictable threat is hypothesized to underlie fear symptomatology, whereas increased response to unpredictable threat may underlie anxiety. Despite widespread acceptance of this model, these purported associations have rarely been tested, and the prognostic value of predictable and unpredictable threat responding is unclear. Here we examined multilevel indicators of predictable and unpredictable threat response as cross-sectional correlates and prospective predictors of transdiagnostic fear and anxiety. Methods Fifty-two individuals with varying levels of internalizing psychopathology (31 female) performed the no-threat, predictable threat, and unpredictable threat task. Transdiagnostic fear and anxiety were assessed at baseline (time 1) and approximately 1.5 years later (time 2). We used event-related potential, the stimulus-preceding negativity, as a measure of threat anticipation and startle eyeblink as a measure of defensive reactivity during the no-threat, predictable threat, and unpredictable threat task. These probes were assessed as cross-sectional correlates and prospective predictors of fear and anxiety. Results Participants with larger time 1 stimulus-preceding negativities to predictable threat were characterized by greater time 1 fear. Larger time 1 stimulus-preceding negativities to unpredictable threat were associated with greater increases in time 2 anxiety. Heightened time 1 startle to predictable threat predicted larger increases in time 2 fear. Conclusions Results validate predictable and unpredictable threat responding as dimensional correlates of transdiagnostic fear versus anxiety and suggest that psychophysiological measures of predictable and unpredictable threat response hold promise as prospective predictors of trajectories of fear and anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kayla A. Wilson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
| | - Annmarie MacNamara
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
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17
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Zanoaga MD, Friligkou E, He J, Pathak GA, Koller D, Cabrera-Mendoza B, Stein MB, Polimanti R. Brain-Wide Mendelian Randomization Study of Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.09.12.23295448. [PMID: 37745546 PMCID: PMC10516096 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.12.23295448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Background To gain insights into the role of brain structure and function on anxiety (ANX), we conducted a genetically informed investigation leveraging information from ANX genome-wide association studies available from UK Biobank (UKB; N=380,379), FinnGen Program (N=290,361), and Million Veteran Program (MVP; N=199,611) together with UKB genome-wide data (N=33,224) related to 3,935 brain imaging-derived phenotypes (IDP). Methods A genetic correlation analysis between ANX and brain IDPs was performed using linkage disequilibrium score regression. To investigate ANX-brain associations, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed considering multiple methods and sensitivity analyses. A subsequent multivariable MR (MVMR) was executed to distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Finally, a generalized linear model was used to explore the associations of brain IDPs with ANX symptoms. Results After false discovery rate correction (FDR q<0.05), we identified 41 brain IDPs genetically correlated with ANX without heterogeneity among the datasets investigated (i.e., UKB, FinnGen, and MVP). Six of these IDPs showed genetically inferred causal effects on ANX. In the subsequent MVMR analysis, reduced area of the right posterior middle-cingulate gyrus (rpMCG; beta=-0.09, P= 8.01×10 -4 ) and reduced gray-matter volume of the right anterior superior temporal gyrus (raSTG; beta=-0.09, P=1.55×10 -3 ) had direct effects on ANX. In the ANX symptom-level analysis, rpMCG was negatively associated with "tense sore oraching muscles during the worst period of anxiety" (beta=-0.13, P=8.26×10 -6 ). Conclusions This study identified genetically inferred effects generalizable across large cohorts, contributing to understand how changes in brain structure and function can lead to ANX.
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18
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Han S, DiBlasi E, Monson ET, Shabalin A, Ferris E, Chen D, Fraser A, Yu Z, Staley M, Callor WB, Christensen ED, Crockett DK, Li QS, Willour V, Bakian AV, Keeshin B, Docherty AR, Eilbeck K, Coon H. Whole-genome sequencing analysis of suicide deaths integrating brain-regulatory eQTLs data to identify risk loci and genes. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:3909-3919. [PMID: 37794117 PMCID: PMC10730410 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02282-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have started to identify potential genetic risk loci associated with risk of suicide; however, a large portion of suicide-associated genetic factors affecting gene expression remain elusive. Dysregulated gene expression, not assessed by GWAS, may play a significant role in increasing the risk of suicide death. We performed the first comprehensive genomic association analysis prioritizing brain expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) within regulatory regions in suicide deaths from the Utah Suicide Genetic Risk Study (USGRS). 440,324 brain-regulatory eQTLs were obtained by integrating brain eQTLs, histone modification ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, DNase-seq, and Hi-C results from publicly available data. Subsequent genomic analyses were conducted in whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 986 suicide deaths of non-Finnish European (NFE) ancestry and 415 ancestrally matched controls. Additional independent USGRS suicide deaths with genotyping array data (n = 4657) and controls from the Genome Aggregation Database were explored for WGS result replication. One significant eQTL locus, rs926308 (p = 3.24e-06), was identified. The rs926308-T is associated with lower expression of RFPL3S, a gene important for neocortex development and implicated in arousal. Gene-based analyses performed using Sherlock Bayesian statistical integrative analysis also detected 20 genes with expression changes that may contribute to suicide risk. From analyzing publicly available transcriptomic data, ten of these genes have previous evidence of differential expression in suicide death or in psychiatric disorders that may be associated with suicide, including schizophrenia and autism (ZNF501, ZNF502, CNN3, IGF1R, KLHL36, NBL1, PDCD6IP, SNX19, BCAP29, and ARSA). Electronic health records (EHR) data was further merged to evaluate if there were clinically relevant subsets of suicide deaths associated with genetic variants. In summary, our study identified one risk locus and ten genes associated with suicide risk via gene expression, providing new insight into possible genetic and molecular mechanisms leading to suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seonggyun Han
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
| | - Emily DiBlasi
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Eric T Monson
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Andrey Shabalin
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Elliott Ferris
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Danli Chen
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Alison Fraser
- Pedigree & Population Resource, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Zhe Yu
- Pedigree & Population Resource, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Michael Staley
- Office of the Medical Examiner, Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - W Brandon Callor
- Office of the Medical Examiner, Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Erik D Christensen
- Office of the Medical Examiner, Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - David K Crockett
- Clinical Analytics, Intermountain Health, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Qingqin S Li
- Neuroscience Therapeutic Area, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Titusville, NJ, USA
| | - Virginia Willour
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Amanda V Bakian
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Brooks Keeshin
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Anna R Docherty
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Karen Eilbeck
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Hilary Coon
- Department of Psychiatry & Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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19
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Abend R. Understanding anxiety symptoms as aberrant defensive responding along the threat imminence continuum. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 152:105305. [PMID: 37414377 PMCID: PMC10528507 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105305] [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] [Received: 07/09/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023]
Abstract
Threat-anticipatory defensive responses have evolved to promote survival in a dynamic world. While inherently adaptive, aberrant expression of defensive responses to potential threat could manifest as pathological anxiety, which is prevalent, impairing, and associated with adverse outcomes. Extensive translational neuroscience research indicates that normative defensive responses are organized by threat imminence, such that distinct response patterns are observed in each phase of threat encounter and orchestrated by partially conserved neural circuitry. Anxiety symptoms, such as excessive and pervasive worry, physiological arousal, and avoidance behavior, may reflect aberrant expression of otherwise normative defensive responses, and therefore follow the same imminence-based organization. Here, empirical evidence linking aberrant expression of specific, imminence-dependent defensive responding to distinct anxiety symptoms is reviewed, and plausible contributing neural circuitry is highlighted. Drawing from translational and clinical research, the proposed framework informs our understanding of pathological anxiety by grounding anxiety symptoms in conserved psychobiological mechanisms. Potential implications for research and treatment are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rany Abend
- School of Psychology, Reichman University, P.O. Box 167, Herzliya 4610101, Israel; Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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20
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Zrenner B, Zrenner C, Balderston N, Blumberger DM, Kloiber S, Laposa JM, Tadayonnejad R, Trevizol AP, Zai G, Feusner JD. Toward personalized circuit-based closed-loop brain-interventions in psychiatry: using symptom provocation to extract EEG-markers of brain circuit activity. Front Neural Circuits 2023; 17:1208930. [PMID: 37671039 PMCID: PMC10475600 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2023.1208930] [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] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Symptom provocation is a well-established component of psychiatric research and therapy. It is hypothesized that specific activation of those brain circuits involved in the symptomatic expression of a brain pathology makes the relevant neural substrate accessible as a target for therapeutic interventions. For example, in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), symptom provocation is an important part of psychotherapy and is also performed prior to therapeutic brain stimulation with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Here, we discuss the potential of symptom provocation to isolate neurophysiological biomarkers reflecting the fluctuating activity of relevant brain networks with the goal of subsequently using these markers as targets to guide therapy. We put forward a general experimental framework based on the rapid switching between psychiatric symptom states. This enable neurophysiological measures to be derived from EEG and/or TMS-evoked EEG measures of brain activity during both states. By subtracting the data recorded during the baseline state from that recorded during the provoked state, the resulting contrast would ideally isolate the specific neural circuits differentially activated during the expression of symptoms. A similar approach enables the design of effective classifiers of brain activity from EEG data in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). To obtain reliable contrast data, psychiatric state switching needs to be achieved multiple times during a continuous recording so that slow changes of brain activity affect both conditions equally. This is achieved easily for conditions that can be controlled intentionally, such as motor imagery, attention, or memory retention. With regard to psychiatric symptoms, an increase can often be provoked effectively relatively easily, however, it can be difficult to reliably and rapidly return to a baseline state. Here, we review different approaches to return from a provoked state to a baseline state and how these may be applied to different symptoms occurring in different psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brigitte Zrenner
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University Psychiatry Hospital, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Christoph Zrenner
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- University Neurology Hospital, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Nicholas Balderston
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress (CNDS), Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Daniel M. Blumberger
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Stefan Kloiber
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Judith M. Laposa
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Reza Tadayonnejad
- TMS Clinical and Research Service, Neuromodulation Division, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
| | - Alisson Paulino Trevizol
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Gwyneth Zai
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jamie D. Feusner
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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21
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Laing BT, Anderson MS, Bonaventura J, Jayan A, Sarsfield S, Gajendiran A, Michaelides M, Aponte Y. Anterior hypothalamic parvalbumin neurons are glutamatergic and promote escape behavior. Curr Biol 2023; 33:3215-3228.e7. [PMID: 37490921 PMCID: PMC10529150 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.070] [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] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Revised: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
The anterior hypothalamic area (AHA) is a critical structure for defensive responding. Here, we identified a cluster of parvalbumin-expressing neurons in the AHA (AHAPV) that are glutamatergic with fast-spiking properties and send axonal projections to the dorsal premammillary nucleus (PMD). Using in vivo functional imaging, optogenetics, and behavioral assays, we determined the role of these AHAPV neurons in regulating behaviors essential for survival. We observed that AHAPV neuronal activity significantly increases when mice are exposed to a predator, and in a real-time place preference assay, we found that AHAPV neuron photoactivation is aversive. Moreover, activation of both AHAPV neurons and the AHAPV → PMD pathway triggers escape responding during a predator-looming test. Furthermore, escape responding is impaired after AHAPV neuron ablation, and anxiety-like behavior as measured by the open field and elevated plus maze assays does not seem to be affected by AHAPV neuron ablation. Finally, whole-brain metabolic mapping using positron emission tomography combined with AHAPV neuron photoactivation revealed discrete activation of downstream areas involved in arousal, affective, and defensive behaviors including the amygdala and the substantia nigra. Our results indicate that AHAPV neurons are a functional glutamatergic circuit element mediating defensive behaviors, thus expanding the identity of genetically defined neurons orchestrating fight-or-flight responses. Together, our work will serve as a foundation for understanding neuropsychiatric disorders triggered by escape such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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Affiliation(s)
- Brenton T Laing
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Megan S Anderson
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Jordi Bonaventura
- Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Aishwarya Jayan
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Sarah Sarsfield
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Anjali Gajendiran
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA
| | - Michael Michaelides
- Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Yeka Aponte
- Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6823, USA; The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
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22
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Grogans SE, Bliss-Moreau E, Buss KA, Clark LA, Fox AS, Keltner D, Cowen AS, Kim JJ, Kragel PA, MacLeod C, Mobbs D, Naragon-Gainey K, Fullana MA, Shackman AJ. The nature and neurobiology of fear and anxiety: State of the science and opportunities for accelerating discovery. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 151:105237. [PMID: 37209932 PMCID: PMC10330657 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Fear and anxiety play a central role in mammalian life, and there is considerable interest in clarifying their nature, identifying their biological underpinnings, and determining their consequences for health and disease. Here we provide a roundtable discussion on the nature and biological bases of fear- and anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders. The discussants include scientists familiar with a wide variety of populations and a broad spectrum of techniques. The goal of the roundtable was to take stock of the state of the science and provide a roadmap to the next generation of fear and anxiety research. Much of the discussion centered on the key challenges facing the field, the most fruitful avenues for future research, and emerging opportunities for accelerating discovery, with implications for scientists, funders, and other stakeholders. Understanding fear and anxiety is a matter of practical importance. Anxiety disorders are a leading burden on public health and existing treatments are far from curative, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the factors governing threat-related emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon E Grogans
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Kristin A Buss
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Lee Anna Clark
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Dacher Keltner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | | | - Jeansok J Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Philip A Kragel
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Colin MacLeod
- Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Kristin Naragon-Gainey
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Miquel A Fullana
- Adult Psychiatry and Psychology Department, Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain; Imaging of Mood, and Anxiety-Related Disorders Group, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, CIBERSAM, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
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23
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Kim HC, Kaplan CM, Islam S, Anderson AS, Piper ME, Bradford DE, Curtin JJ, DeYoung KA, Smith JF, Fox AS, Shackman AJ. Acute nicotine abstinence amplifies subjective withdrawal symptoms and threat-evoked fear and anxiety, but not extended amygdala reactivity. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288544. [PMID: 37471317 PMCID: PMC10358993 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Tobacco smoking imposes a staggering burden on public health, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the processes that maintain addiction. Clinical and experience-sampling data highlight the importance of anxious withdrawal symptoms, but the underlying neurobiology has remained elusive. Mechanistic work in animals implicates the central extended amygdala (EAc)-including the central nucleus of the amygdala and the neighboring bed nucleus of the stria terminalis-but the translational relevance of these discoveries remains unexplored. Here we leveraged a randomized trial design, well-established threat-anticipation paradigm, and multidimensional battery of assessments to understand the consequences of 24-hour nicotine abstinence. The threat-anticipation paradigm had the expected consequences, amplifying subjective distress and arousal, and recruiting the canonical threat-anticipation network. Abstinence increased smoking urges and withdrawal symptoms, and potentiated threat-evoked distress, but had negligible consequences for EAc threat reactivity, raising questions about the translational relevance of prominent animal and human models of addiction. These observations provide a framework for conceptualizing nicotine abstinence and withdrawal, with implications for basic, translational, and clinical science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyung Cho Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Claire M Kaplan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Samiha Islam
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Allegra S Anderson
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Megan E Piper
- Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Daniel E Bradford
- School of Psychological Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America
| | - John J Curtin
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Kathryn A DeYoung
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Jason F Smith
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
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24
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LeNoble C, Naranjo A, Shoss M, Horan K. Navigating a Context of Severe Uncertainty: The Effect of Industry Unsafety Signals on Employee Well-being During the COVID-19 Crisis. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SCIENCE 2023:1-37. [PMID: 37359454 PMCID: PMC10183695 DOI: 10.1007/s41542-023-00155-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
Complex disaster situations like the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) create macro-level contexts of severe uncertainty that disrupt industries across the globe in unprecedented ways. While occupational health research has made important advances in understanding the effects of occupational stressors on employee well-being, there is a need to better understand the employee well-being implications of severe uncertainty stemming from macro-level disruption. We draw from the Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress (GUTS) to explain how a context of severe uncertainty can create signals of economic and health unsafety at the industry level, leading to emotional exhaustion through paths of economic and health anxiety. We integrate recent disaster scholarship that classifies COVID-19 as a transboundary disaster and use this interdisciplinary perspective to explain how COVID-19 created a context of severe uncertainty from which these effects unfold. To test our proposed model, we pair objective industry data with time-lagged quantitative and qualitative survey responses from 212 employees across industries collected during the height of the initial COVID-19 response in the United States. Structural equation modeling results indicate a significant indirect effect of industry COVID-19 unsafety signals on emotional exhaustion through the health, but not economic, unsafety path. Qualitative analyses provide further insights into these dynamics. Theoretical and practical implications for employee well-being in a context of severe uncertainty are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chelsea LeNoble
- Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816 USA
| | - Anthony Naranjo
- Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816 USA
| | - Mindy Shoss
- Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816 USA
- Peter Faber Business School, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC Australia
| | - Kristin Horan
- Department of Psychological Science, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA USA
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25
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Shukla A, Dogra DK, Bhattacharya D, Gulia S, Sharma R. Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health in sports: a review. SPORT SCIENCES FOR HEALTH 2023:1-15. [PMID: 37360974 PMCID: PMC10116474 DOI: 10.1007/s11332-023-01063-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
Global pandemic, lockdown restrictions, and COVID-19 compulsory social isolation guidelines have raised unprecedented mental health in the sports community. The COVID-19 pandemic is found to affect the mental health of the population. In critical situations, health authorities and sports communities must identify their priorities and make plans to maintain athletes' health and athletic activities. Several aspects play an important role in prioritization and strategic planning, e.g., physical and mental health, distribution of resources, and short to long-term environmental considerations. To identify the psychological health of sportspeople and athletes due to the outbreak of COVID-19 has been reviewed in this research. This review article also analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on health mental in databases. The COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine would have a serious negative impact on the mental health of athletes. From the accessible sources, 80 research articles were selected and examined for this purpose such as Research Gate, PubMed, Google Scholar, Springer, Scopus, and Web of Science and based on the involvement for this study 14 research articles were accessed. This research has an intention on mental health issues in athletes due to the Pandemic. This report outlines the mental, emotional and behavioural consequences of COVID-19 home confinement. Further, research literature reported that due to the lack of required training, physical activity, practice sessions, and collaboration with teammates and coaching staff are the prime causes of mental health issues in athletes. The discussions also reviewed several pieces of literature which examined the impacts on sports and athletes, impacts on various countries, fundamental issues of mental health and the diagnosis for the sports person and athletes, and the afterlife of the COVID-19 pandemic for them. Because of the compulsory restrictions and guidelines of this COVID-19 eruption, the athletes of different sports and geographical regions are suffering from fewer psychological issues which were identified in this paper. Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to negatively affect the mental health of the athletes with the prevalence and levels of anxiety and stress increasing, and depression symptoms remaining unaltered. Addressing and mitigating the negative effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of this population identified from this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akash Shukla
- Department of Physical Education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP India
| | - Deepak Kumar Dogra
- Department of Physical Education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP India
| | - Debraj Bhattacharya
- Department of Physical Education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP India
| | - Satish Gulia
- Department of Physical Education, Janta Degree College, Patla, Ghaziabad, UP India
| | - Rekha Sharma
- Department of Physical Education, Hindu Girls College, MDU, Sonipat, Haryana India
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26
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Murty DVPS, Song S, Surampudi SG, Pessoa L. Threat and Reward Imminence Processing in the Human Brain. J Neurosci 2023; 43:2973-2987. [PMID: 36927571 PMCID: PMC10124955 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1778-22.2023] [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] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023] Open
Abstract
In the human brain, aversive and appetitive processing have been studied with controlled stimuli in rather static settings. In addition, the extent to which aversive-related and appetitive-related processing engage distinct or overlapping circuits remains poorly understood. Here, we sought to investigate the dynamics of aversive and appetitive processing while male and female participants engaged in comparable trials involving threat avoidance or reward seeking. A central goal was to characterize the temporal evolution of responses during periods of threat or reward imminence. For example, in the aversive domain, we predicted that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), but not the amygdala, would exhibit anticipatory responses given the role of the former in anxious apprehension. We also predicted that the periaqueductal gray (PAG) would exhibit threat-proximity responses based on its involvement in proximal-threat processes, and that the ventral striatum would exhibit threat-imminence responses given its role in threat escape in rodents. Overall, we uncovered imminence-related temporally increasing ("ramping") responses in multiple brain regions, including the BST, PAG, and ventral striatum, subcortically, and dorsal anterior insula and anterior midcingulate, cortically. Whereas the ventral striatum generated anticipatory responses in the proximity of reward as expected, it also exhibited threat-related imminence responses. In fact, across multiple brain regions, we observed a main effect of arousal. In other words, we uncovered extensive temporally evolving, imminence-related processing in both the aversive and appetitive domain, suggesting that distributed brain circuits are dynamically engaged during the processing of biologically relevant information regardless of valence, findings further supported by network analysis.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In the human brain, aversive and appetitive processing have been studied with controlled stimuli in rather static settings. Here, we sought to investigate the dynamics of aversive/appetitive processing while participants engaged in trials involving threat avoidance or reward seeking. A central goal was to characterize the temporal evolution of responses during periods of threat or reward imminence. We uncovered imminence-related temporally increasing ("ramping") responses in multiple brain regions, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, periaqueductal gray, and ventral striatum, subcortically, and dorsal anterior insula and anterior midcingulate, cortically. Overall, we uncovered extensive temporally evolving, imminence-related processing in both the aversive and appetitive domain, suggesting that distributed brain circuits are dynamically engaged during the processing of biologically relevant information regardless of valence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Songtao Song
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | | | - Luiz Pessoa
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
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27
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Pessoa L. How many brain regions are needed to elucidate the neural bases of fear and anxiety? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 146:105039. [PMID: 36634832 PMCID: PMC11019846 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2022] [Revised: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
We suggest that to understand complex behaviors associated with fear and anxiety, we need to understand brain processes at the collective, network level. But what should be the type and spatial scale of the targeted circuits/networks? Not only are multi-region interactions essential-including complex reciprocal interactions, loops, and other types of arrangement-but it is profitable to characterize circuits spanning the entire neuroaxis. In particular, it is productive to conceptualize the circuits contributing to fear/anxiety as embedded into large-scale connectional systems. We discuss circuits involving the basolateral amygdala that contribute to aversive conditioning and fear extinction. In addition, we highlight the importance of the extended amygdala (central nucleus of the amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis) cortical-subcortical loop, which allows large swaths of cortex and subcortex to influence fear and anxiety. In this manner, fear/anxiety can be understood not only based on traditional "descending" mechanisms involving the hypothalamus and brainstem, but in terms of a considerably broader reentrant organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luiz Pessoa
- Department of Psychology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
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28
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Murty DVPS, Song S, Surampudi SG, Pessoa L. Threat and reward imminence processing in the human brain. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.01.20.524987. [PMID: 36711746 PMCID: PMC9882302 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.20.524987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
In the human brain, aversive and appetitive processing have been studied with controlled stimuli in rather static settings. In addition, the extent to which aversive- and appetitive-related processing engage distinct or overlapping circuits remains poorly understood. Here, we sought to investigate the dynamics of aversive and appetitive processing while male and female participants engaged in comparable trials involving threat-avoidance or reward-seeking. A central goal was to characterize the temporal evolution of responses during periods of threat or reward imminence . For example, in the aversive domain, we predicted that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), but not the amygdala, would exhibit anticipatory responses given the role of the former in anxious apprehension. We also predicted that the periaqueductal gray (PAG) would exhibit threat-proximity responses based on its involvement in proximal-threat processes, and that the ventral striatum would exhibit threat-imminence responses given its role in threat escape in rodents. Overall, we uncovered imminence-related temporally increasing ("ramping") responses in multiple brain regions, including the BST, PAG, and ventral striatum, subcortically, and dorsal anterior insula and anterior midcingulate, cortically. Whereas the ventral striatum generated anticipatory responses in the proximity of reward as expected, it also exhibited threat-related imminence responses. In fact, across multiple brain regions, we observed a main effect of arousal. In other words, we uncovered extensive temporally-evolving, imminence-related processing in both the aversive and appetitive domain, suggesting that distributed brain circuits are dynamically engaged during the processing of biologically relevant information irrespective of valence, findings further supported by network analysis. Significance Statement In the human brain, aversive and appetitive processing have been studied with controlled stimuli in rather static settings. Here, we sought to investigate the dynamics of aversive/appetitive processing while participants engaged in trials involving threat-avoidance or reward-seeking. A central goal was to characterize the temporal evolution of responses during periods of threat or reward imminence . We uncovered imminence-related temporally increasing ("ramping") responses in multiple brain regions, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, periaqueductal gray, and ventral striatum, subcortically, and dorsal anterior insula and anterior midcingulate, cortically. Overall, we uncovered extensive temporally-evolving, imminence-related processing in both the aversive and appetitive domain, suggesting that distributed brain circuits are dynamically engaged during the processing of biologically relevant information irrespective of valence.
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29
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Neural responding during uncertain threat anticipation in pediatric anxiety. Int J Psychophysiol 2023; 183:159-170. [PMID: 35985508 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Excessive fear responses to uncertain threat are a key feature of anxiety disorders (ADs), though most mechanistic work considers adults. As ADs onset in childhood and confer risk for later psychopathology, we sought to identify conditions of uncertain threat that distinguish 8-17-year-old youth with AD (n = 19) from those without AD (n = 33), and assess test-retest reliability of such responses in a companion sample of healthy adults across three sites (n = 19). In an adapted uncertainty of threat paradigm, visual cues parametrically signaled threat of aversive stimuli (fear faces) in 25 % increments (0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 100 %), while participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared neural response elicited by cues signaling different degrees of probability regarding the subsequent delivery of fear faces. Overall, youth displayed greater engagement of bilateral inferior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and lingual gyrus during uncertain threat anticipation in general. Relative to healthy youth, AD youth exhibited greater activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC)/BA47 during uncertain threat anticipation in general. Further, AD differed from healthy youth in scaling of ventral striatum/sgACC activation with threat probability and attenuated flexibility of responding during parametric uncertain threat. Complementing these results, significant, albeit modest, cross-site test-retest reliability in these regions was observed in an independent sample of healthy adults. While preliminary due to a small sample size, these findings suggest that during uncertainty of threat, AD youth engage vlPFC regions known to be involved in fear regulation, response inhibition, and cognitive control. Findings highlight the potential of isolating neural correlates of threat anticipation to guide treatment development and translational work in youth.
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31
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Evaluation of the effect of alpha-tocopherol on anxiety and the neuroinflammatory process during alcohol withdrawal in a model of forced and chronic self-administration of liquid diet containing ethanol: Behavioral and neurochemical evidence. Alcohol 2022; 104:31-44. [PMID: 35987315 DOI: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2022.08.002] [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: 12/03/2021] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Alcoholism affects about 2 billion people worldwide. Withdrawal causes a neuroinflammatory response that increases anxiety. α-tocopherol is the most important antioxidant that has its in vivo action currently known. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of α-tocopherol on the neuroinflammatory process in brain regions involved in anxiety and its anxiolytic potential during alcohol withdrawal. For this, male Wistar rats were divided into four groups and submitted to a procedure of forced and chronic self-administration of liquid diet containing 6% and 8% ethanol for 15 days, followed by abrupt interruption of treatment. Animals in the control group received the liquid diet without ethanol. Twenty-four or 48 h after ethanol discontinuation, and 30 min after the last administration of α-tocopherol or saline, animals were evaluated in the elevated plus maze, light/dark box, and open field tests. At the end of the tests, each experimental group underwent brain tissue collection for analysis of cytokine levels. The results showed that: alcohol induces the neuroinflammatory process and anxiety; the stress generated by withdrawal can induce oxidative stress, which alters the production of inflammatory cytokines in the amygdaloid nuclei (AN) and medial hypothalamic nucleus (mHN); α-tocopherol exhibited anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory activity, attenuating the anxious behavior of abstinent animals and reducing neuroinflammation in AN and mHN; and the intensity of the anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory effect of α-tocopherol is dose-dependent. These results identify α-tocopherol as a potential therapeutic target supporting the fight against relapse during alcohol withdrawal.
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32
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Merz CJ, Wolf OT. How stress hormones shape memories of fear and anxiety in humans. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 142:104901. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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33
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Holley D, Fox AS. The central extended amygdala guides survival-relevant tradeoffs: Implications for understanding common psychiatric disorders. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 142:104879. [PMID: 36115597 PMCID: PMC11178236 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
To thrive in challenging environments, individuals must pursue rewards while avoiding threats. Extensive studies in animals and humans have identified the central extended amygdala (EAc)-which includes the central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST)-as a conserved substrate for defensive behavior. These studies suggest the EAc influences defensive responding and assembles fearful and anxious states. This has led to the proliferation of a view that the EAc is fundamentally a defensive substrate. Yet mechanistic work in animals has implicated the EAc in numerous appetitive and consummatory processes, yielding fresh insights into the microcircuitry of survival- and emotion-relevant response selection. Coupled with the EAc's centrality in a conserved network of brain regions that encode multisensory environmental and interoceptive information, these findings suggest a broader role for the EAc as an arbiter of survival- and emotion-relevant tradeoffs for action selection. Determining how the EAc optimizes these tradeoffs promises to improve our understanding of common psychiatric illnesses such as anxiety, depression, alcohol- and substance-use disorders, and anhedonia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Holley
- Department of Psychology and the California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology and the California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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34
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Liu X, Klugah-Brown B, Zhang R, Chen H, Zhang J, Becker B. Pathological fear, anxiety and negative affect exhibit distinct neurostructural signatures: evidence from psychiatric neuroimaging meta-analysis. Transl Psychiatry 2022; 12:405. [PMID: 36151073 PMCID: PMC9508096 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-02157-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Revised: 09/04/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Internalizing disorders encompass anxiety, fear and depressive disorders, which exhibit overlap at both conceptual and symptom levels. Given that a neurobiological evaluation is lacking, we conducted a Seed-based D-Mapping comparative meta-analysis including coordinates as well as original statistical maps to determine common and disorder-specific gray matter volume alterations in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), fear-related anxiety disorders (FAD, i.e., social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, panic disorder) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Results showed that GAD exhibited disorder-specific altered volumes relative to FAD including decreased volumes in left insula and lateral/medial prefrontal cortex as well as increased right putamen volume. Both GAD and MDD showed decreased prefrontal volumes compared to controls and FAD. While FAD showed less robust alterations in lingual gyrus compared to controls, this group presented intact frontal integrity. No shared structural abnormalities were found. Our study is the first to provide meta-analytic evidence for distinct neuroanatomical abnormalities underlying the pathophysiology of anxiety-, fear-related and depressive disorders. These findings may have implications for determining promising target regions for disorder-specific neuromodulation interventions (e.g. transcranial magnetic stimulation or neurofeedback).
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiqin Liu
- grid.54549.390000 0004 0369 4060The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 611731 Chengdu, P. R. China
| | - Benjamin Klugah-Brown
- grid.54549.390000 0004 0369 4060The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 611731 Chengdu, P. R. China
| | - Ran Zhang
- grid.54549.390000 0004 0369 4060The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 611731 Chengdu, P. R. China
| | - Huafu Chen
- grid.54549.390000 0004 0369 4060The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 611731 Chengdu, P. R. China
| | - Jie Zhang
- grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443Institute of Science and Technology for Brain Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, P. R. China ,grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Ministry of Education, 200433 Shanghai, P. R. China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 611731, Chengdu, P. R. China.
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35
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Lin WY, Hsieh JC, Lu CC, Ono Y. Altered metabolic connectivity between the amygdala and default mode network is related to pain perception in patients with cancer. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14105. [PMID: 35982228 PMCID: PMC9388574 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18430-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the neural correlates for chronic cancer pain conditions by retrospectively analyzing whole brain regions on 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography images acquired from 80 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal cancer. The patients were divided into three groups according to perceived pain severity and type of analgesic treatment, namely patients not under analgesic treatment because of no or minor pain, patients with good pain control under analgesic treatment, and patients with poor pain control despite analgesic treatment. Uncontrollable cancer pain enhanced the activity of the hippocampus, amygdala, inferior temporal gyrus, and temporal pole. Metabolic connectivity analysis further showed that amygdala co-activation with the hippocampus was reduced in the group with poor pain control and preserved in the groups with no or minor pain and good pain control. The increased although imbalanced activity of the medial temporal regions may represent poor pain control in patients with cancer. The number of patients who used anxiolytics was higher in the group with poor pain control, whereas the usage rates were comparable between the other two groups. Therefore, further studies should investigate the relationship between psychological conditions and pain in patients with cancer and analyze the resultant brain activity.Trial registration: This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov on 9/3/20 (NCT04537845).
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Ying Lin
- grid.19188.390000 0004 0546 0241Department of Anesthesiology, National Taiwan University Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan ,grid.412094.a0000 0004 0572 7815Department of Anesthesiology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jen-Chuen Hsieh
- grid.260539.b0000 0001 2059 7017Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Ching-Chu Lu
- grid.412094.a0000 0004 0572 7815Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yumie Ono
- grid.411764.10000 0001 2106 7990School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, Kawasaki, Japan
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36
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Torres G, Mourad M, Leheste JR. Indoor Air Pollution and Decision-Making Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Review. Cureus 2022; 14:e26247. [PMID: 35911286 PMCID: PMC9313076 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.26247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
The human brain is constantly exposed to air pollutants, some of which might be disruptive or even lethal to certain neurons implicated in abstract features of cognitive function. In this review, we present new evidence from behavioral and neural studies in humans, suggesting a link between indoor fine particulate matter and decision-making behavior. To illustrate this relationship, we use qualitative sources, such as historical documents of the Vietnam War to develop hypotheses of how aerial transmission of pollutants might obstruct alternative choices during the evaluation of policy decisions. We first describe the neural circuits driving decision-making processes by addressing how neurons and their cognate receptors directly evaluate and transduce physical phenomena into sensory perceptions that allow us to decide the best course of action among competing alternatives. We then raise the possibility that indoor air pollutants might also impact cell-signaling systems outside the brain parenchyma to further obstruct the computational analysis of the social environment. We also highlight how particulate matter might be pathologically integrated into the brain to override control of sensory decisions, and thereby perturb selection of choice. These lines of research aim to extend our understanding of how inhalation of airborne particulates and toxicants in smoke, for example, might contribute to cognitive impairment and negative health outcomes.
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37
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Hur J, Kuhn M, Grogans SE, Anderson AS, Islam S, Kim HC, Tillman RM, Fox AS, Smith JF, DeYoung KA, Shackman AJ. Anxiety-Related Frontocortical Activity Is Associated With Dampened Stressor Reactivity in the Real World. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:906-924. [PMID: 35657777 PMCID: PMC9343891 DOI: 10.1177/09567976211056635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Negative affect is a fundamental dimension of human emotion. When extreme, it contributes to a variety of adverse outcomes, from physical and mental illness to divorce and premature death. Mechanistic work in animals and neuroimaging research in humans and monkeys have begun to reveal the broad contours of the neural circuits governing negative affect, but the relevance of these discoveries to everyday distress remains incompletely understood. Here, we used a combination of approaches-including neuroimaging assays of threat anticipation and emotional-face perception and more than 10,000 momentary assessments of emotional experience-to demonstrate that individuals who showed greater activation in a cingulo-opercular circuit during an anxiety-eliciting laboratory paradigm experienced lower levels of stressor-dependent distress in their daily lives (ns = 202-208 university students). Extended amygdala activation was not significantly related to momentary negative affect. These observations provide a framework for understanding the neurobiology of negative affect in the laboratory and in the real world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juyoen Hur
- Department of Psychology, Yonsei
University
| | - Manuel Kuhn
- Center for Depression, Anxiety
and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard
University
| | | | | | - Samiha Islam
- Department of Psychology,
University of Pennsylvania
| | - Hyung Cho Kim
- Department of Psychology,
University of Maryland
- Neuroscience and Cognitive
Science Program, University of Maryland
| | | | - Andrew S. Fox
- Department of Psychology,
University of California, Davis
- California National Primate
Research Center, University of California, Davis
| | | | | | - Alexander J. Shackman
- Department of Psychology,
University of Maryland
- Neuroscience and Cognitive
Science Program, University of Maryland
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center,
University of Maryland, College Park
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38
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Manzler CA, Radoman M, Khorrami KJ, Gorka SM. Association between startle reactivity to uncertain threats and structural brain volume. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14074. [PMID: 35579909 PMCID: PMC10080733 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14074] [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: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Sensitivity to uncertain threat (U-threat) is a clinically important individual difference factor in multiple psychopathologies. Recent studies have implicated a specific frontolimbic circuit as a key network involved in the anticipation of aversive stimuli. In particular, the insula, thalamus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) have recently been found to be robustly activated by anticipation of U-threat. However, no study to date has examined the association between U-threat reactivity and structural brain volume. In the present study, we utilized a pooled sample of 186 young adult volunteers who completed a structural MRI scan and the well-validated No-Predictable-Unpredictable (NPU) threat of electric shock task. Startle eyeblink potentiation was collected during the NPU task as an objective index of aversive reactivity. ROI-based analyses revealed that increased startle reactivity to U-threat was associated with reduced gray matter volume in the right insula and bilateral thalamus, but not the dACC. These results add to a growing literature implicating the insula and thalamus as core nodes involved in individual differences in U-threat reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles A Manzler
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Milena Radoman
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Kia J Khorrami
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Stephanie M Gorka
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA.,Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
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39
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Wang XH, Liu XF, Ao M, Wang T, He J, Gu YW, Fan JW, Yang L, Yu R, Guo S. Cerebral Perfusion Patterns of Anxiety State in Patients With Pulmonary Nodules: A Study of Cerebral Blood Flow Based on Arterial Spin Labeling. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:912665. [PMID: 35615271 PMCID: PMC9125149 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.912665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Purpose The proportion of patients with somatic diseases associated with anxiety is increasing each year, and pulmonary nodules have become a non-negligible cause of anxiety, the mechanism of which is unclear. The study focus on the cerebral blood flow (CBF) of anxiety in patients with pulmonary nodules to explore the cerebral perfusion pattern of anxiety associated with pulmonary nodules, blood perfusion status and mode of pulmonary nodule induced anxiety state. Materials and Methods Patients with unconfirmed pulmonary nodules were evaluated by Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA). The total score > 14 was defined as anxiety group, and the total score ≤ 14 points was defined as non-anxiety group. A total of 38 patients were enrolled, of which 19 patients were the anxiety group and 19 were the non-anxiety group. All subjects underwent arterial spin labeling imaging using a 3.0 T MRI. A two-sample t-test was performed to compare the CBF between the two groups. The CBF was extracted in brain regions with difference, and Spearman correlation was used to analyze the correlation between CBF and HAMA scores; ROC was used to analyze the performance of CBF to distinguish between the anxiety group and the non-anxiety group. Results The CBF in the right insula/Heschl’s cortex of the anxiety group decreased (cluster = 109, peak t = 4.124, and P < 0.001), and the CBF in the right postcentral gyrus increased (cluster = 53, peak t = −3.912, and P < 0.001) in the anxiety group. But there was no correlation between CBF and HAMA score. The ROC analysis of the CBF of the right insula/Heschl’s cortex showed that the AUC was 0.856 (95%CI, 0.729, 0.983; P < 0.001), the optimal cutoff value of the CBF was 50.899, with the sensitivity of 0.895, and specificity of 0.789. The ROC analysis of CBF in the right postcentral gyrus showed that the AUC was 0.845 (95%CI, 0.718, 0.972; P < 0.001), the optimal cutoff value of CBF was 43.595, with the sensitivity of 0.737, and specificity of 0.842. Conclusion The CBF of the right insula/Heschl’s cortex decreased and the CBF of the right postcentral gyrus increased in patients with pulmonary nodules under anxiety state, and the CBF of the aforementioned brain regions can accurately distinguish the anxiety group from the non-anxiety group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Hui Wang
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Xiao-Fan Liu
- School of Medical Technology, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China
| | - Min Ao
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Ting Wang
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Jinglan He
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yue-Wen Gu
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Jing-Wen Fan
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Li Yang
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- *Correspondence: Li Yang,
| | - Renqiang Yu
- Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- Renqiang Yu,
| | - Shuliang Guo
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- Shuliang Guo, , orcid.org/0000-0003-3572-7421
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40
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Kirk PA, Holmes AJ, Robinson OJ. Threat vigilance and intrinsic amygdala connectivity. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 43:3283-3292. [PMID: 35362645 PMCID: PMC9188965 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
A well‐documented amygdala‐dorsomedial prefrontal circuit is theorized to promote attention to threat (“threat vigilance”). Prior research has implicated a relationship between individual differences in trait anxiety/vigilance, engagement of this circuitry, and anxiogenic features of the environment (e.g., through threat‐of‐shock and movie‐watching). In the present study, we predicted that—for those scoring high in self‐reported anxiety and a behavioral measure of threat vigilance—this circuitry is chronically engaged, even in the absence of anxiogenic stimuli. Our analyses of resting‐state fMRI data (N = 639) did not, however, provide evidence for such a relationship. Nevertheless, in our planned exploratory analyses, we saw a relationship between threat vigilance behavior (but not self‐reported anxiety) and intrinsic amygdala‐periaqueductal gray connectivity. Here, we suggest this subcortical circuitry may be chronically engaged in hypervigilant individuals, but that amygdala‐prefrontal circuitry may only be engaged in response to anxiogenic stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Kirk
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.,Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK.,Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Avram J Holmes
- Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.,Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Oliver J Robinson
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.,Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
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41
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Henry BJ. Symptom Management in Oncology: Depression and Anxiety. Semin Oncol Nurs 2022; 38:151251. [DOI: 10.1016/j.soncn.2022.151251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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42
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OUP accepted manuscript. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4284-4292. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Revised: 11/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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43
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Kenwood MM, Kalin NH, Barbas H. The prefrontal cortex, pathological anxiety, and anxiety disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:260-275. [PMID: 34400783 PMCID: PMC8617307 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01109-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Anxiety is experienced in response to threats that are distal or uncertain, involving changes in one's subjective state, autonomic responses, and behavior. Defensive and physiologic responses to threats that involve the amygdala and brainstem are conserved across species. While anxiety responses typically serve an adaptive purpose, when excessive, unregulated, and generalized, they can become maladaptive, leading to distress and avoidance of potentially threatening situations. In primates, anxiety can be regulated by the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which has expanded in evolution. This prefrontal expansion is thought to underlie primates' increased capacity to engage high-level regulatory strategies aimed at coping with and modifying the experience of anxiety. The specialized primate lateral, medial, and orbital PFC sectors are connected with association and limbic cortices, the latter of which are connected with the amygdala and brainstem autonomic structures that underlie emotional and physiological arousal. PFC pathways that interface with distinct inhibitory systems within the cortex, the amygdala, or the thalamus can regulate responses by modulating neuronal output. Within the PFC, pathways connecting cortical regions are poised to reduce noise and enhance signals for cognitive operations that regulate anxiety processing and autonomic drive. Specialized PFC pathways to the inhibitory thalamic reticular nucleus suggest a mechanism to allow passage of relevant signals from thalamus to cortex, and in the amygdala to modulate the output to autonomic structures. Disruption of specific nodes within the PFC that interface with inhibitory systems can affect the negative bias, failure to regulate autonomic arousal, and avoidance that characterize anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaux M Kenwood
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
- Neuroscience Training Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
| | - Ned H Kalin
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
- Neuroscience Training Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
- Wisconsin National Primate Center, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Helen Barbas
- Neural Systems Laboratory, Department of Health Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
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44
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Abend R, Ruiz SG, Bajaj MA, Harrewijn A, Linke JO, Atlas LY, Winkler AM, Pine DS. Threat imminence reveals links among unfolding of anticipatory physiological response, cortical-subcortical intrinsic functional connectivity, and anxiety. Neurobiol Stress 2022; 16:100428. [PMID: 35036479 PMCID: PMC8749274 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2022.100428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Excessive expression of fear responses in anticipation of threat occurs in anxiety, but understanding of underlying pathophysiological mechanisms is limited. Animal research indicates that threat-anticipatory defensive responses are dynamically organized by threat imminence and rely on conserved circuitry. Insight from basic neuroscience research in animals on threat imminence could guide mechanistic research in humans mapping abnormal function in this circuitry to aberrant defensive responses in pathological anxiety. 50 pediatric anxiety patients and healthy-comparisons (33 females) completed an instructed threat-anticipation task whereby cues signaled delivery of painful (threat) or non-painful (safety) thermal stimulation. Temporal changes in skin-conductance indexed anxiety effects on anticipatory responding as function of threat imminence. Multivariate network analyses of resting-state functional connectivity data from a subsample were used to identify intrinsic-function correlates of anticipatory-response dynamics, within a specific, distributed network derived from translational research on defensive responding. By considering threat imminence, analyses revealed specific anxiety effects. Importantly, pathological anxiety was associated with excessive deployment of anticipatory physiological response as threat, but not safety, outcomes became more imminent. Magnitude of increase in threat-anticipatory physiological responses corresponded with magnitude of intrinsic connectivity within a cortical-subcortical circuit. Moreover, more severe anxiety was associated with stronger associations between anticipatory physiological responding and connectivity that ventromedial prefrontal cortex showed with hippocampus and basolateral amygdala, regions implicated in animal models of anxiety. These findings link basic and clinical research, highlighting variations in intrinsic function in conserved defensive circuitry as a potential pathophysiological mechanism in anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rany Abend
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Sonia G. Ruiz
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Mira A. Bajaj
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Anita Harrewijn
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
- Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Julia O. Linke
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Lauren Y. Atlas
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Anderson M. Winkler
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Daniel S. Pine
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
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45
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Murty DVPS, Song S, Morrow K, Kim J, Hu K, Pessoa L. Distributed and Multifaceted Effects of Threat and Safety. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 34:495-516. [PMID: 34942650 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
In the present fMRI study, we examined how anxious apprehension is processed in the human brain. A central goal of the study was to test the prediction that a subset of brain regions would exhibit sustained response profiles during threat periods, including the anterior insula, a region implicated in anxiety disorders. A second important goal was to evaluate the responses in the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminals, regions that have been suggested to be involved in more transient and sustained threat, respectively. A total of 109 participants performed an experiment in which they encountered "threat" or "safe" trials lasting approximately 16 sec. During the former, they experienced zero to three highly unpleasant electrical stimulations, whereas in the latter, they experienced zero to three benign electrical stimulations (not perceived as unpleasant). The timing of the stimulation during trials was randomized, and as some trials contained no stimulation, stimulation delivery was uncertain. We contrasted responses during threat and safe trials that did not contain electrical stimulation, but only the potential that unpleasant (threat) or benign (safe) stimulation could occur. We employed Bayesian multilevel analysis to contrast responses to threat and safe trials in 85 brain regions implicated in threat processing. Our results revealed that the effect of anxious apprehension is distributed across the brain and that the temporal evolution of the responses is quite varied, including more transient and more sustained profiles, as well as signal increases and decreases with threat.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Kesong Hu
- Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
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46
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Visser RM, Bathelt J, Scholte HS, Kindt M. Robust BOLD Responses to Faces But Not to Conditioned Threat: Challenging the Amygdala's Reputation in Human Fear and Extinction Learning. J Neurosci 2021; 41:10278-10292. [PMID: 34750227 PMCID: PMC8672698 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0857-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Revised: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Most of our knowledge about human emotional memory comes from animal research. Based on this work, the amygdala is often labeled the brain's "fear center", but it is unclear to what degree neural circuitries underlying fear and extinction learning are conserved across species. Neuroimaging studies in humans yield conflicting findings, with many studies failing to show amygdala activation in response to learned threat. Such null findings are often treated as resulting from MRI-specific problems related to measuring deep brain structures. Here we test this assumption in a mega-analysis of three studies on fear acquisition (n = 98; 68 female) and extinction learning (n = 79; 53 female). The conditioning procedure involved the presentation of two pictures of faces and two pictures of houses: one of each pair was followed by an electric shock [a conditioned stimulus (CS+)], the other one was never followed by a shock (CS-), and participants were instructed to learn these contingencies. Results revealed widespread responses to the CS+ compared with the CS- in the fear network, including anterior insula, midcingulate cortex, thalamus, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not the amygdala, which actually responded stronger to the CS- Results were independent of spatial smoothing, and of individual differences in trait anxiety and conditioned pupil responses. In contrast, robust amygdala activation distinguished faces from houses, refuting the idea that a poor signal could account for the absence of effects. Moving forward, we suggest that, apart from imaging larger samples at higher resolution, alternative statistical approaches may be used to identify cross-species similarities in fear and extinction learning.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The science of emotional memory provides the foundation of numerous theories on psychopathology, including stress and anxiety disorders. This field relies heavily on animal research, which suggests a central role of the amygdala in fear learning and memory. However, this finding is not strongly corroborated by neuroimaging evidence in humans, and null findings are too easily explained away by methodological limitations inherent to imaging deep brain structures. In a large nonclinical sample, we find widespread BOLD activation in response to learned fear, but not in the amygdala. A poor signal could not account for the absence of effects. While these findings do not disprove the involvement of the amygdala in human fear learning, they challenge its typical portrayals and illustrate the complexities of translational science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renée M Visser
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Joe Bathelt
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
| | - H Steven Scholte
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Merel Kindt
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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47
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Jaillard C, Ouechtati F, Clérin E, Millet-Puel G, Corsi M, Aït-Ali N, Blond F, Chevy Q, Gales L, Farinelli M, Dalkara D, Sahel JA, Portais JC, Poncer JC, Léveillard T. The metabolic signaling of the nucleoredoxin-like 2 gene supports brain function. Redox Biol 2021; 48:102198. [PMID: 34856436 PMCID: PMC8640531 DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2021.102198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The nucleoredoxin gene NXNL2 encodes for two products through alternative splicing, rod-derived cone viability factor-2 (RdCVF2) that mediates neuronal survival and the thioredoxin-related protein (RdCVF2L), an enzyme that regulates the phosphorylation of TAU. To investigate the link between NXNL2 and tauopathies, we studied the Nxnl2 knockout mouse (Nxnl2-/-). We established the expression pattern of the Nxnl2 gene in the brain using a Nxnl2 reporter mouse line, and characterized the behavior of the Nxnl2-/- mouse at 2 months of age. Additionally, long term potentiation and metabolomic from hippocampal specimens were collected at 2 months of age. We studied TAU oligomerization, phosphorylation and aggregation in Nxnl2-/- brain at 18 months of age. Finally, newborn Nxnl2-/- mice were treated with adeno-associated viral vectors encoding for RdCVF2, RdCVF2L or both and measured the effect of this therapy on long-term potential, glucose metabolism and late-onset tauopathy. Nxnl2-/- mice at 2 months of age showed severe behavioral deficiency in fear, pain sensitivity, coordination, learning and memory. The Nxnl2-/- also showed deficits in long-term potentiation, demonstrating that the Nxnl2 gene is involved in regulating brain functions. Dual delivery of RdCVF2 and RdCVF2L in newborn Nxnl2-/- mice fully correct long-term potentiation through their synergistic action. The expression pattern of the Nxnl2 gene in the brain shows a predominant expression in circumventricular organs, such as the area postrema. Glucose metabolism of the hippocampus of Nxnl2-/- mice at 2 months of age was reduced, and was not corrected by gene therapy. At 18-month-old Nxnl2-/- mice showed brain stigmas of tauopathy, such as oligomerization, phosphorylation and aggregation of TAU. This late-onset tauopathy can be prevented, albeit with modest efficacy, by recombinant AAVs administrated to newborn mice. The Nxnl2-/- mice have memory dysfunction at 2-months that resembles mild-cognitive impairment and at 18-months exhibit tauopathy, resembling to the progression of Alzheimer's disease. We propose the Nxnl2-/- mouse is a model to study multistage aged related neurodegenerative diseases. The NXNL2 metabolic and redox signaling is a new area of therapeutic research in neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Céline Jaillard
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Farah Ouechtati
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Clérin
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | | | - Mariangela Corsi
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Najate Aït-Ali
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Frédéric Blond
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Quentin Chevy
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut du Fer à Moulin, F-75005, Paris, France
| | - Lara Gales
- MetaToul-MetaboHUB, National Infrastructure of Metabolomics & Fluxomics, 31077, Toulouse, France
| | - Mélissa Farinelli
- E-Phy-Science, Bioparc de Sophia Antipolis, 2400 route des Colles, 06410, Biot, France
| | - Deniz Dalkara
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - José-Alain Sahel
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Charles Portais
- MetaToul-MetaboHUB, National Infrastructure of Metabolomics & Fluxomics, 31077, Toulouse, France
| | | | - Thierry Léveillard
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, F-7501b, Paris, France.
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48
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Feola B, Melancon SNT, Clauss JA, Noall MP, Mgboh A, Flook EA, Benningfield MM, Blackford JU. Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and amygdala responses to unpredictable threat in children. Dev Psychobiol 2021; 63:e22206. [PMID: 34813095 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Revised: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Substantial evidence from studies in humans suggests the amygdala is pivotal for anxiety. Findings from animal models and translational studies suggests the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is also critical for anxiety and the anticipation of unpredictable threat in adults. However, it remains unknown whether the BNST is involved in unpredictable threat anticipation in children. Forty-two 8-10-year-olds completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans and an unpredictable threat fMRI task in which they were trained to associate cues with images. Intrinsic connectivity analyses were performed to establish functional BNST and amygdala networks. BNST and amygdala activation to cues and images was tested. Significant findings were followed by task-based functional connectivity analyses. Children showed evidence for BNST and amygdala intrinsic connectivity that was similar to previous patterns observed in adults. In response to unpredictable cues relative to neutral face cues, children had a significant amygdala response but no response in the BNST. The amygdala, but not the BNST, also showed a significantly greater response to fear face images relative to neutral images. Thus, unpredictable threat activated the amygdala, but not BNST, in children. This finding is contrary to studies showing robust BNST activation to unpredictable threat in adults and may suggest that the BNST's role in threat processing emerges later in development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandee Feola
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Sir Norman T Melancon
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | | | - Madison P Noall
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Adaora Mgboh
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Flook
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Margaret M Benningfield
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Jennifer Urbano Blackford
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
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49
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Siminski N, Borgmann L, Becker MPI, Hofmann D, Gathmann B, Leehr EJ, Böhnlein J, Seeger FR, Schwarzmeier H, Roesmann K, Junghöfer M, Dannlowski U, Lueken U, Straube T, Herrmann MJ. Centromedial amygdala is more relevant for phobic confrontation relative to the bed nucleus of stria terminalis in patients with spider phobia. J Psychiatr Res 2021; 143:268-275. [PMID: 34530337 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies indicate differential involvement of the centromedial amygdala (CM) and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) during processing (anticipation and confrontation) of threat stimuli. Here, temporal predictability was shown to be a relevant factor. In this study, we want to investigate the relevance of these effects, which were found in healthy subjects, for anxiety disorders. Therefore, we investigated the differential involvement of CM and BNST in the anticipation and confrontation of phobic stimuli under variation of temporal predictability in spider phobia. 21 patients with spider phobia and 21 healthy controls underwent a temporally predictable/unpredictable phobic and neutral anticipation and confrontation paradigm using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ROI analyses. During the anticipation phase, healthy controls showed higher CM and BNST activity during the predictable compared with the unpredictable condition compared with the anxiety patients. During a confrontation phase that followed the anticipation phase, CM was more activated than BNST during the phobic compared with the neutral confrontation. While this effect was independent of threat predictability in patients, healthy controls showed higher activation in the CM compared with the BNST only during the predictable spider confrontation compared with the predictable bird confrontation. The results contribute to a better understanding of the separate roles of the CM and BNST during phobic processes. The CM was found to be more relevant to phobic confrontation in patients with spider phobia compared with the BNST.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Siminski
- Center of Mental Health, Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany
| | - L Borgmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - M P I Becker
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - D Hofmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - B Gathmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - E J Leehr
- Institute for Translational Psychiatry, University of Münster, Germany
| | - J Böhnlein
- Institute for Translational Psychiatry, University of Münster, Germany
| | - F R Seeger
- Center of Mental Health, Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany; Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - H Schwarzmeier
- Center of Mental Health, Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany
| | - K Roesmann
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Germany; Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Siegen, Germany
| | - M Junghöfer
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Germany
| | - U Dannlowski
- Institute for Translational Psychiatry, University of Münster, Germany
| | - U Lueken
- Center of Mental Health, Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
| | - T Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - M J Herrmann
- Center of Mental Health, Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany.
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50
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Stout DM, Powell S, Kangavary A, Acheson DT, Nievergelt CM, Kash T, Simmons AN, Baker DG, Risbrough VB. Dissociable impact of childhood trauma and deployment trauma on affective modulation of startle. Neurobiol Stress 2021; 15:100362. [PMID: 34258336 PMCID: PMC8259305 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2021] [Revised: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Trauma disorders are often associated with alterations in aversive anticipation and disruptions in emotion/fear circuits. Heightened or blunted anticipatory responding to negative cues in adulthood may be due to differential trauma exposure during development, and previous trauma exposure in childhood may also modify effects of subsequent trauma in adulthood. The aim of the current investigation was to examine the contributions of childhood trauma on affective modulation of startle before and after trauma exposure in adulthood (a combat deployment). Adult male participants from the Marine Resilience Study with (n = 1145) and without (n = 1312) a history of reported childhood trauma completed an affective modulation of startle task to assess aversive anticipation. Affective startle response was operationalized by electromyography (EMG) recording of the orbicularis oculi muscle in response to acoustic stimuli when anticipating positive and negative affective images. Startle responses to affective images were also assessed. Testing occurred over three time-points; before going on a 7 month combat deployment and 3 and 6 months after returning from deployment. Startle response when anticipating negative images was greater compared to pleasant images across all three test periods. Across all 3 time points, childhood trauma was consistently associated with significantly blunted startle when anticipating negative images, suggesting reliable effects of childhood trauma on aversive anticipation. Conversely, deployment trauma was associated with increased startle reactivity post-deployment compared to pre-deployment, which was independent of childhood trauma and image valence. These results support the hypothesis that trauma exposure during development vs. adulthood may have dissociable effects on aversive anticipation and arousal mechanisms. Further study in women and across more refined age groups is needed to test generalizability and identify potential developmental windows for these differential effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel M. Stout
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | - Susan Powell
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | | | - Dean T. Acheson
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | - Caroline M. Nievergelt
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | | | - Alan N. Simmons
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | - Dewleen G. Baker
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
| | - Victoria B. Risbrough
- VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), USA
- VA San Diego Healthcare System, USA
- University of California San Diego, USA
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