Dataset Information

Specifically altered brain responses to threat in generalized anxiety disorder relative to social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite considerable effort, the neurobiological underpinnings of hyper-responsive threat processing specific to patients suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) remain poorly understood. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aims to delineate GAD-specific brain activity during immediate threat processing by comparing GAD patients to healthy controls (HC), to social anxiety disorder (SAD) and to panic disorder (PD) patients.

Method

Brain activation and functional connectivity patterns to threat vs. neutral pictures were investigated using event-related fMRI. The sample consisted of 21 GAD, 21 PD, 21 SAD and 21 HC.

Results

GAD-specific elevated activity to threat vs. neutral pictures was found in cingulate cortex, dorsal anterior insula/frontal operculum (daI/FO) and posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Defining these effects as seed regions, we detected GAD-specific increased functional connectivity to threat vs. neutral pictures between posterior dlPFC and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, between cingulate cortex and amygdala, between cingulate cortex and anterior insula, as well as decreased functional connectivity between daI/FO and mid-dlPFC.

Conclusion

The findings present the first evidence for GAD-specific neural correlates of hyper-responsive threat processing, possibly reflecting exaggerated threat sensitivity, maladaptive appraisal and attention-allocation processes.

SUBMITTER: Buff C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5065042 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Specifically altered brain responses to threat in generalized anxiety disorder relative to social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.

Buff Christine C Brinkmann Leonie L Neumeister Paula P Feldker Katharina K Heitmann Carina C Gathmann Bettina B Andor Tanja T Straube Thomas T

NeuroImage. Clinical 20161005

<h4>Background</h4>Despite considerable effort, the neurobiological underpinnings of hyper-responsive threat processing specific to patients suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) remain poorly understood. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aims to delineate GAD-specific brain activity during immediate threat processing by comparing GAD patients to healthy controls (HC), to social anxiety disorder (SAD) and to panic disorder (PD) patients.<h4>Method</h4>Bra ...[more]

PMID: 27761400

Similar Datasets

Project description:Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) are the two severe subtypes of anxiety disorders (ADs), which are similar in clinical manifestation, pathogenesis, and treatment. Earlier studies have taken a whole-brain perspective on GAD and PD in the assumption that intrinsic fluctuations are static throughout the entire scan. However, it has recently been suggested that the dynamic alternations in functional connectivity (FC) may reflect the changes in macroscopic neural activity patterns underlying the critical aspects of cognition and behavior, and thus may act as biomarkers of disease. Methods: In this study, the resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data were collected from 26 patients with GAD, 22 patients with PD, and 26 healthy controls (HCs). We investigated dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) by using the group spatial independent component analysis, a sliding window approach, and the k-means clustering methods. For group comparisons, the temporal properties of DFC states were analyzed statistically. Results: The dynamic analysis demonstrated two discrete connectivity "States" across the entire group, namely, a more segregated State I and a strongly integrated State II. Compared with HCs, patients with both GAD and PD spent more time in the weakly within-network State I, while performing fewer transitions and dwelling shorter in the integrated State II. Additionally, the analysis of DFC strength showed that connections associated with ADs were identified including the regions that belonged to default mode (DM), executive control (EC), and salience (SA) networks, especially the connections between SA and DM networks. However, no significant difference was found between the GAD and PD groups in temporal features and connection strength. Conclusions: More common but less specific alterations were detected in the GAD and PD groups, which implied that they might have similar state-dependent neurophysiological mechanisms and, in addition, could hopefully help us better understand their abnormal affective and cognitive performances in the clinic.

Dataset Information

Specifically altered brain responses to threat in generalized anxiety disorder relative to social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Specifically altered brain responses to threat in generalized anxiety disorder relative to social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.

Similar Datasets

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