Human bed nucleus of the stria terminalis indexes hypervigilant threat monitoring.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Though a key symptom underlying many anxiety disorders is hypervigilant threat monitoring, its biological bases in humans remain poorly understood. Animal models suggest that anxious processes such as hypervigilant threat monitoring are distinct from cued fear-like responses and mediated by the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Here, we applied psychophysiological and neuroimaging methodologies sensitive to sustained arousal-based responses to test the role of the human BNST in mediating environmental threat monitoring, a potential experimental model for sustained anxiety symptoms.

Methods

Healthy participants (n = 50) with varying trait anxiety performed an environmental threat-monitoring task during functional magnetic resonance imaging where a stimulu

SUBMITTER: Somerville LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2921460 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature