Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2022 Oct;59(10):e14074. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14074. Epub 2022 May 17.
Sensitivity to uncertain threat (U-threat) is a clinically important individual difference factor in multiple psychopathologies. Recent studies have implicated a specific frontolimbic circuit as a key network involved in the anticipation of aversive stimuli. In particular, the insula, thalamus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) have recently been found to be robustly activated by anticipation of U-threat. However, no study to date has examined the association between U-threat reactivity and structural brain volume. In the present study, we utilized a pooled sample of 186 young adult volunteers who completed a structural MRI scan and the well-validated No-Predictable-Unpredictable (NPU) threat of electric shock task. Startle eyeblink potentiation was collected during the NPU task as an objective index of aversive reactivity. ROI-based analyses revealed that increased startle reactivity to U-threat was associated with reduced gray matter volume in the right insula and bilateral thalamus, but not the dACC. These results add to a growing literature implicating the insula and thalamus as core nodes involved in individual differences in U-threat reactivity.
对不确定威胁（U-威胁）的敏感性是多种精神病理学中一个重要的临床个体差异因素。最近的研究表明，特定的额-边缘回路是参与预期厌恶性刺激的关键网络。特别是，岛叶、丘脑和背侧前扣带皮层（dACC）在预期 U-威胁时被发现会强烈激活。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究探讨 U-威胁反应性与大脑结构体积之间的关联。在本研究中，我们利用了一个由 186 名年轻成年志愿者组成的样本池，这些志愿者完成了结构磁共振成像扫描和经过充分验证的无预测性-不可预测性（NPU）电击威胁任务。在 NPU 任务期间收集了眨眼反射增强作为厌恶反应的客观指标。基于 ROI 的分析表明，对 U-威胁的惊吓反应增强与右侧岛叶和双侧丘脑的灰质体积减少有关，但与 dACC 无关。这些结果增加了越来越多的文献表明，岛叶和丘脑是参与 U-威胁反应性个体差异的核心节点。
