Key laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10049, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2018 Oct;39(10):3898-3914. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24219. Epub 2018 Jun 8.
In the research field of anxiety, previous studies generally focus on emotional responses following threat. A recent model of anxiety proposes that altered anticipation prior to uncertain threat is related with the development of anxiety. Behavioral findings have built the relationship between anxiety and distinct anticipatory processes including attention, estimation of threat, and emotional responses. However, few studies have characterized the brain organization underlying anticipation of uncertain threat and its role in anxiety. In the present study, we used an emotional anticipation paradigm with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the aforementioned topics by employing brain activation and general psychophysiological interactions (gPPI) analysis. In the activation analysis, we found that high trait anxious individuals showed significantly increased activation in the thalamus, middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), as well as decreased activation in the precuneus, during anticipation of uncertain threat compared to the certain condition. In the gPPI analysis, the key regions including the amygdala, dmPFC, and precuneus showed altered connections with distributed brain areas including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior parietal sulcus (IPS), insula, para-hippocampus gyrus (PHA), thalamus, and MTG involved in anticipation of uncertain threat in anxious individuals. Taken together, our findings indicate that during the anticipation of uncertain threat, anxious individuals showed altered activations and functional connectivity in widely distributed brain areas, which may be critical for abnormal perception, estimation, and emotion reactions during the anticipation of uncertain threat.
在焦虑研究领域,先前的研究通常集中在威胁后的情绪反应上。最近的焦虑模型提出,在不确定威胁之前改变预期与焦虑的发展有关。行为研究已经建立了焦虑与不同预期过程之间的关系,包括注意力、威胁估计和情绪反应。然而,很少有研究描述不确定威胁预期背后的大脑组织及其在焦虑中的作用。在本研究中,我们使用了带有功能磁共振成像(fMRI)的情绪预期范式,通过使用大脑激活和一般心理生理相互作用(gPPI)分析来研究上述主题。在激活分析中,我们发现高特质焦虑个体在不确定威胁的预期中,与确定条件相比,丘脑、中颞叶(MTG)和背内侧前额叶皮层(dmPFC)的激活显著增加,而楔前叶的激活减少。在 gPPI 分析中,关键区域包括杏仁核、dmPFC 和楔前叶,与广泛分布的脑区(包括腹内侧前额叶皮层(vmPFC)、背外侧前额叶皮层(dlPFC)、下顶内沟(IPS)、岛叶、副海马回(PHA)、丘脑和 MTG)的连接发生改变,这些脑区与焦虑个体在不确定威胁预期中的感知、估计和情绪反应异常有关。总之,我们的研究结果表明,在不确定威胁的预期中,焦虑个体表现出广泛分布的大脑区域的激活和功能连接改变,这可能对不确定威胁预期中的异常感知、估计和情绪反应至关重要。