Psychology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Psychology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 Aug;145:106564. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.11.008. Epub 2017 Nov 20.
Volume reductions in the amygdala (AMY) have been found in patients with anxiety disorders, but findings are mixed in subclinical participants with high trait anxiety scores, in whom both reductions and increases in AMY volume have been identified. One potential reason for such discrepancies could be the employment of different methods to determine the AMY volume (i.e., manual tracing in psychiatric research vs. automated methods), in non-patient research. In addition to trait anxiety, smaller AMY volume has also been linked to neuroticism, a personality trait consistently linked to increased vulnerability to anxiety. However, it is not clear how AMY volume and neuroticism together may contribute to anxiety symptoms in healthy functioning. These issues were investigated in a sample of 46 healthy participants who underwent anatomical MRI scanning and completed questionnaires measuring trait anxiety and neuroticism. AMY volume was assessed using manual tracing, based on anatomical landmarks identified in each participant's anatomical image. First, smaller left AMY volume was linked to higher levels of neuroticism (p = .013) and trait anxiety (p = .024), which in turn were positively correlated with each other. Moreover, AMY volume had a significant indirect effect on trait anxiety through neuroticism (ab = - .009, 95% CI [- .019, - .002]). This effect was not bidirectional, as trait anxiety did not predict AMY volume through neuroticism. Collectively, these findings provide support for a brain-personality-symptom framework of understanding affective dysregulation, which may help inform the development of prevention and intervention paradigms targeting preservation of AMY volume and reduction of neuroticism, to protect against anxiety symptoms.
杏仁核（AMY）体积减少已在焦虑症患者中发现，但在高特质焦虑评分的亚临床参与者中发现结果不一，其中 AMY 体积减少和增加的情况都有发现。造成这种差异的一个潜在原因可能是在非患者研究中，采用了不同的方法来确定 AMY 体积（即精神病学研究中的手动追踪与自动化方法）。除了特质焦虑外，AMY 体积较小还与神经质有关，神经质是一种人格特质，与焦虑易感性增加密切相关。然而，目前尚不清楚 AMY 体积和神经质如何共同导致健康人群的焦虑症状。在一个由 46 名健康参与者组成的样本中，研究了这些问题，这些参与者接受了解剖 MRI 扫描，并完成了测量特质焦虑和神经质的问卷。使用手动追踪根据每个参与者解剖图像中确定的解剖标志来评估 AMY 体积。首先，左侧 AMY 体积较小与神经质水平较高（p =.013）和特质焦虑（p =.024）相关，而这两者又相互呈正相关。此外，AMY 体积通过神经质对特质焦虑有显著的间接影响（ab = -.009，95%CI [-.019，-.002]）。这种影响不是双向的，因为特质焦虑不能通过神经质来预测 AMY 体积。总之，这些发现为理解情感失调的脑-人格-症状框架提供了支持，这可能有助于为保护 AMY 体积和降低神经质以预防焦虑症状的预防和干预模式的发展提供信息。
