Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Science (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
Psychophysiology. 2020 Oct;57(10):e13629. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13629. Epub 2020 Jul 6.
Behavioral research has found that trait anxiety is associated with a lower propensity for risk-taking. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this relation are still unknown. To address this question, we employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) to examine the influence of trait anxiety on risk-taking. We theorized that trait anxiety may affect risk-taking via negative prospection during episodic future thinking, which is known to be mediated by episodic memory systems including the hippocampus. We measured risk-taking using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and found that risk-taking in this task was negatively correlated with trait anxiety. The VBM results suggested a positive correlation between trait anxiety and grey matter volumes in the hippocampus, consistent with previous results. Functional connectivity results indicated that functional connectivity between a right hippocampus cortex (RHPC) seed region and left insula (LInsula) was positively correlated with trait anxiety scores but negatively correlated with risk-taking. Critically, mediation analysis showed that trait anxiety played a completely mediating role in the relation between the functional connectivity of RHPC-LInsula and risk-taking. These results suggested that trait anxiety can affect risk-taking via episodic future thinking mechanisms subserved by the hippocampal cortex acting in concert with emotional and motivational control mechanisms subserved by the insular cortex.
行为研究发现，特质焦虑与较低的冒险倾向有关。然而，这种关系的神经机制尚不清楚。为了解决这个问题，我们采用基于体素的形态测量学（VBM）分析和静息态功能连接（rs-FC）来研究特质焦虑对冒险的影响。我们推测，特质焦虑可能通过情景性未来思维中的负面预期来影响冒险，而情景性记忆系统包括海马体已知会介导这种影响。我们使用气球模拟风险任务（BART）来衡量冒险行为，发现该任务中的冒险行为与特质焦虑呈负相关。VBM 结果表明，特质焦虑与海马体的灰质体积呈正相关，这与之前的结果一致。功能连接结果表明，右海马皮层（RHPC）种子区域与左岛叶（LInsula）之间的功能连接与特质焦虑得分呈正相关，与冒险行为呈负相关。至关重要的是，中介分析表明，特质焦虑在 RHPC-LInsula 功能连接与冒险之间的关系中起着完全中介作用。这些结果表明，特质焦虑可以通过海马皮层介导的情景性未来思维机制和岛叶皮层介导的情绪和动机控制机制来影响冒险。
