scholarly journals Location-dependent threat and associated neural abnormalities in clinical anxiety

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez ◽  
Nicholas L. Balderston ◽  
James A. Bisby ◽  
Joseph Leshin ◽  
Abigail Hsiung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Safe Zone ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Shock Delivery ◽  
Danger Zone ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Pathological Anxiety

AbstractAnxiety disorders are characterized by maladaptive defensive responses to distal or uncertain threats. Elucidating neural mechanisms of anxiety is essential to understand the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. In fMRI, patients with pathological anxiety (ANX, n = 23) and healthy controls (HC, n = 28) completed a contextual threat learning paradigm in which they picked flowers in a virtual environment comprising a danger zone in which flowers were paired with shock and a safe zone (no shock). ANX compared with HC showed 1) decreased ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior hippocampus activation during the task, particularly in the safe zone, 2) increased insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation during the task, particularly in the danger zone, and 3) increased amygdala and midbrain/periaqueductal gray activation in the danger zone prior to potential shock delivery. Findings suggest that ANX engage brain areas differently to modulate context-appropriate emotional responses when learning to discriminate cues within an environment.

scholarly journals Learning about location-dependent threat: neural abnormalities in clinical anxiety

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez ◽  
Nicholas Balderston ◽  
James Bisby ◽  
Joseph Leshin ◽  
Abigail Hsiung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Shock Delivery ◽  
Danger Zone ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Pathological Anxiety

Abstract Anxiety disorders are characterized by maladaptive defensive responses to distal or uncertain threats. Elucidating neural mechanisms of anxiety is essential to formulate new treatment strategies tartgeting these circuits. In an fMRI scanner, patients with pathological anxiety (ANX, n=23) and healthy comparisons (HC, n=28) completed a contextual threat learning paradigm, in which they picked flowers in a virtual environment comprising a danger zone in which flowers were paired with shock and a safe zone (no shock). ANX compared with HC showed 1) global decreased ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior hippocampus activation during the task, 2) increased insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation in the danger zone during the task; and 3) increased amygdala and midbrain/periaqueductal gray activation in the danger zone prior to potential shock delivery. Our findings suggest that ANX exhibit a heightened reactivity to threat and show decreased activation in modulatory areas responsible for regulating context-appropriate emotional responses.

scholarly journals Dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex track distinct properties of dynamic social behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Kelsey R McDonald ◽  
John M Pearson ◽  
Scott A Huettel
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
General Role ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Decision Neuroscience ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Abstract Understanding how humans make competitive decisions in complex environments is a key goal of decision neuroscience. Typical experimental paradigms constrain behavioral complexity (e.g. choices in discrete-play games), and thus, the underlying neural mechanisms of dynamic social interactions remain incompletely understood. Here, we collected fMRI data while humans played a competitive real-time video game against both human and computer opponents, and then, we used Bayesian non-parametric methods to link behavior to neural mechanisms. Two key cognitive processes characterized behavior in our task: (i) the coupling of one’s actions to another’s actions (i.e. opponent sensitivity) and (ii) the advantageous timing of a given strategic action. We found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex displayed selective activation when the subject’s actions were highly sensitive to the opponent’s actions, whereas activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex increased proportionally to the advantageous timing of actions to defeat one’s opponent. Moreover, the temporoparietal junction tracked both of these behavioral quantities as well as opponent social identity, indicating a more general role in monitoring other social agents. These results suggest that brain regions that are frequently implicated in social cognition and value-based decision-making also contribute to the strategic tracking of the value of social actions in dynamic, multi-agent contexts.

scholarly journals A pilot trial of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in anorexia nervosa: resting fMRI correlates of response

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Blake Woodside ◽  
Katharine Dunlop ◽  
Charlene Sathi ◽  
Eileen Lam ◽  
Brigitte McDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Trial Registration ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Open Label ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract Background Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) face severe and chronic illness with high mortality rates, despite our best currently available conventional treatments. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown increasing efficacy in treatment-refractory cases across a variety of psychiatric disorders comorbid with AN, including major depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, to date few studies have examined the effects of a course of rTMS on AN pathology itself. Methods Nineteen patients with AN underwent a 20–30 session open-label course of dorsomedial prefrontal rTMS for comorbid Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) ± PTSD. Resting-state functional MRI was acquired at baseline in 16/19 patients. Results Following treatment, significant improvements were seen in core AN pathology on the EDE global scale, and to a lesser extent on the shape and weight concerns subscales. Significant improvements in comorbid anxiety, and to a lesser extent depression, also ensued. The greatest improvements were seen in patients with lower baseline functional connectivity from the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) target to regions in the right frontal pole and left angular gyrus. Conclusions Despite the limited size of this preliminary, open-label study, the results suggest that rTMS is safe in AN, and may be useful in addressing some core domains of AN pathology. Other targets may also be worth studying in this population, in future sham-controlled trials with larger sample sizes. Trial registration Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04409704. Registered May 282,020. Retrospectively registered.

scholarly journals Interfering with activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex via TMS affects social impressions updating

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Ferrari ◽  
Tomaso Vecchi ◽  
Alexander Todorov ◽  
Zaira Cattaneo
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

scholarly journals Retrieval practice facilitates memory updating by enhancing and differentiating medial prefrontal cortex representations

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhifang Ye ◽  
Liang Shi ◽  
Anqi Li ◽  
Chuansheng Chen ◽  
Gui Xue
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Final Test ◽  
Memory Updating ◽  
Practice Condition ◽  
Memory Integration

Updating old memories with new, more current information is critical for human survival, yet the neural mechanisms for memory updating in general and the effect of retrieval practice in particular are poorly understood. Using a three-day A-B/A-C memory updating paradigm, we found that compared to restudy, retrieval practice could strengthen new A-C memories and reduce old A-B memory intrusion, but did not suppress A-B memories. Neural activation pattern analysis revealed that compared to restudy, retrieval practice led to stronger target representation in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during the final test. Critically, it was only under the retrieval practice condition that the MPFC showed strong and comparable competitor evidence for both correct and incorrect trials during final test, and that the MPFC target representation during updating was predictive of subsequent memory. These results suggest that retrieval practice is able to facilitate memory updating by strongly engaging MPFC mechanisms in memory integration, differentiation and consolidation.

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