TY - JOUR
T1 - Striatal-limbic activation is associated with intensity of anticipatory anxiety
AU - Yang, Hongyu
AU - Spence, Jeffrey S.
AU - Devous, Michael D.
AU - Briggs, Richard W.
AU - Goyal, Aman
AU - Xiao, Hong
AU - Yadav, Hardik
AU - Adinoff, Bryon
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by INIAStress U01AA013641 and U01AA16668 and the Department of Veterans Affairs . We are grateful to Larry Steier and Victoria Vescovo for their skilled assistance of fMRI scanning.
PY - 2012/11/30
Y1 - 2012/11/30
N2 - Anxiety experienced in anticipation of impending aversive events induces striatal-limbic activation. However, previous functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) studies of anticipatory anxiety have utilized post-test measures of anxiety, making a direct association between neural activation and distress problematic. This paradigm was designed to assess the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to an aversive conditioned stimulus while simultaneously measuring subjective anxiety. Fifteen male healthy subjects (45.5±8.5 years old) were studied. A high-threat conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with either an unpredictable, highly aversive (painful) or non-aversive (non-painful) unconditioned stimulus and compared to a low-threat CS paired with a predictable, non-aversive stimulus. Neural response was assessed with fMRI, and subjective anxiety (1-4) was recorded upon the presentation of each CS. High subjective ratings of real-time anticipatory anxiety (2-4), relative to low anticipatory anxiety (1), elicited increased activation in the bilateral striatum, bilateral orbital frontal cortex, left anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and decreased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). The amplitude of BOLD signal change generally paralleled the subjective rating of anxiety. Real-time measures of anticipatory anxiety confirm previous reports, using post-test measures of anxiety, of striatal-limbic activation during anticipatory anxiety while simultaneously demonstrating an increase in BOLD response in parallel with heightened anxiety.
AB - Anxiety experienced in anticipation of impending aversive events induces striatal-limbic activation. However, previous functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) studies of anticipatory anxiety have utilized post-test measures of anxiety, making a direct association between neural activation and distress problematic. This paradigm was designed to assess the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to an aversive conditioned stimulus while simultaneously measuring subjective anxiety. Fifteen male healthy subjects (45.5±8.5 years old) were studied. A high-threat conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with either an unpredictable, highly aversive (painful) or non-aversive (non-painful) unconditioned stimulus and compared to a low-threat CS paired with a predictable, non-aversive stimulus. Neural response was assessed with fMRI, and subjective anxiety (1-4) was recorded upon the presentation of each CS. High subjective ratings of real-time anticipatory anxiety (2-4), relative to low anticipatory anxiety (1), elicited increased activation in the bilateral striatum, bilateral orbital frontal cortex, left anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and decreased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). The amplitude of BOLD signal change generally paralleled the subjective rating of anxiety. Real-time measures of anticipatory anxiety confirm previous reports, using post-test measures of anxiety, of striatal-limbic activation during anticipatory anxiety while simultaneously demonstrating an increase in BOLD response in parallel with heightened anxiety.
KW - Anticipatory anxiety
KW - Functional magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Striatal-limbic system
KW - Striatum
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U2 - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.10.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 23137803
AN - SCOPUS:84872378512
SN - 0925-4927
VL - 204
SP - 123
EP - 131
JO - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
JF - Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
IS - 2-3
ER -