scholarly journals Illness Severity Moderated Association Between Trait Anxiety and Amygdala-Based Functional Connectivity in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Du ◽  
Hailong Li ◽  
Hongqi Xiao ◽  
Mei Wang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Illness Severity ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Significant Group

Trait anxiety is considered a vulnerability factor for the development of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The amygdala is related to both trait anxiety and GAD. Thus, we investigated amygdala-based functional connectivity (FC) in drug-naive non-comorbid GAD patients and explored its associations with personality, symptoms, and illness severity. FC analyses using the bilateral amygdala as seeds were performed with resting-state functional MRI data from 38 GAD patients and 20 matched healthy controls (HCs). Clinical characteristics were correlated with FC Z-scores from regions showing significant group differences. Furthermore, moderation analyses were used to explore the conditional effect of illness severity measured by the Clinical Global Impression–Severity (CGI-S) scale on the relationship between FC and trait anxiety. Relative to HCs, GAD patients showed hypoconnectivity between the amygdala and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), parahippocampal gyrus, and cerebellum and hyperconnectivity between the amygdala and the superior temporal gyrus (STG), insula, and postcentral gyrus. In GAD patients, amygdala–rACC connectivity was negatively associated with symptom severity and trait anxiety, and amygdala–IFG connectivity was positively associated with symptom severity. Moreover, CGI-S scores moderated the negative correlation between trait anxiety and amygdala–rACC FC. We demonstrate that there is extensive amygdala-based network dysfunction in patients with GAD. More importantly, amygdala–rACC connectivity plays a key role in the neural pathology of trait anxiety. Finally, the more severe the illness, the stronger the negative association between trait anxiety and amygdala–rACC FC. Our results emphasize the importance of personalized intervention in GAD.

scholarly journals Dysfunction of Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Amygdala Subregions in Drug-Naïve Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Wang ◽  
Lingxiao Cao ◽  
Hailong Li ◽  
Hongqi Xiao ◽  
Yao Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Drug Naïve ◽  
State And Trait Anxiety

Objective: Although previous studies have reported on disrupted amygdala subregional functional connectivity in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), most of these studies were conducted in GAD patients with comorbidities or with drug treatment. Besides, whether/how the amygdala subregional functional networks were associated with state and trait anxiety is still largely unknown.Methods: Resting-state functional connectivity of amygdala subregions, including basolateral amygdala (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) as seed, were mapped and compared between 37 drug-naïve, non-comorbidity GAD patients and 31 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). Relationships between amygdala subregional network dysfunctions and state/trait anxiety were examined using partial correlation analyses.Results: Relative to HCs, GAD patients showed weaker functional connectivity of the left BLA with anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortices. Significantly increased functional connectivity of right BLA and CMA with superior temporal gyrus and insula were also identified in GAD patients. Furthermore, these functional connectivities showed correlations with state and trait anxiety scores.Conclusions: These findings revealed abnormal functional coupling of amygdala subregions in GAD patients with regions involved in fear processing and emotion regulation, including anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus, which provide the unique biological markers for GAD and facilitating the future accurate clinical diagnosis and target treatment.

A Pilot Study of Anterior Cingulate Cortex Neurochemistry in Adolescents with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Strawn ◽  
Wen-Jang Chu ◽  
Rachel M. Whitsel ◽  
Wade A. Weber ◽  
Matthew M. Norris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Generalized Anxiety

scholarly journals 1122 RESTING STATE FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN PRIMARY INSOMNIA, GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER AND CONTROLS

SLEEP ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. A418-A418
Author(s):  
EF Pace-Schott ◽  
JP Zimmerman ◽  
RM Bottary ◽  
EG Lee ◽  
MR Milad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Primary Insomnia ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity

scholarly journals Disrupted Amygdalar Subregion Functional Connectivity and Evidence of a Compensatory Network in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (12) ◽  
pp. 1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Etkin ◽  
Katherine E. Prater ◽  
Alan F. Schatzberg ◽  
Vinod Menon ◽  
Michael D. Greicius
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Generalized Anxiety

Attenuated responses to emotional expressions in women with generalized anxiety disorder

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1009-1018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Palm ◽  
R. Elliott ◽  
S. McKie ◽  
J. F. W. Deakin ◽  
I. M. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Bold Signal

BackgroundGeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD) is under-researched despite its high prevalence and large impact on the healthcare system. There is a paucity of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that explore the neural correlates of emotional processing in GAD. The present study investigated the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response to processing positive and negative facial emotions in patients with GAD.MethodA total of 15 female GAD patients and 16 female controls undertook an implicit face emotion task during fMRI scanning. They also performed a face emotion recognition task outside the scanner.ResultsThe only behavioural difference observed in GAD patients was less accurate detection of sad facial expressions compared with control participants. However, GAD patients showed an attenuated BOLD signal in the prefrontal cortex to fearful, sad, angry and happy facial expressions and an attenuated signal in the anterior cingulate cortex to happy and fearful facial expressions. No differences were found in amygdala response.ConclusionsIn contrast with previous research, this study found BOLD signal attenuation in the ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex during face emotion processing, consistent with a hypothesis of hypo-responsivity to external emotional stimuli in GAD. These decreases were in areas that have been implicated in emotion and cognition and may reflect an altered balance between internally and externally directed attentional processes.

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