Effect of trait anxiety on prefrontal control mechanisms during emotional conflict

Abstract

Converging evidence points to a link between anxiety proneness and altered emotional functioning, including threat-related biases in selective attention and higher susceptibility to emotionally ambiguous stimuli. However, during these complex emotional situations, it remains unclear how trait anxiety affects the engagement of the prefrontal emotional control system and particularly the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a core region at the intersection of the limbic and prefrontal systems. Using an emotional conflict task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated in healthy subjects the relations between trait anxiety and both regional activity and functional connectivity (psychophysiological interaction) of the ACC. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with stronger task-related activation in ACC but with reduced functional connectivity between ACC and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). These results support the hypothesis that when one is faced with emotionally incompatible information, anxiety leads to inefficient high-order control, characterized by insufficient ACC-LPFC functional coupling and increases, possibly compensatory, in activation of ACC. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of the neural circuitry underlying anxiety and may offer potential treatment markers for anxiety disorders.

CX3CR1 is dysregulated in blood and brain from schizophrenia patients

“…Twenty-nine stabilized SCZ patients (treated with either risperidone or aripiprazole) and thirty-one healthy controls were part of a neuroimaging cohort study conducted in Marseille (France) with the aim to identify links between disease phenotype, gene expression and neuroimaging variables obtained after using a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm (Comte et al, 2015;Comte et al, 2014). Only patients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for SCZ were recruited for the study.…”

Serotonin and early life stress interact to shape brain architecture and anxious avoidant behavior – a TPH2 imaging genetics approach

“…The BIS appears particularly suitable given that it strongly overlaps with trait anxiety and specifically measures individual differences in the reactivity towards stimuli that are associated with a high probability of punishment and shapes anxious and avoidant behavior (see also revised reinforcement sensitivity theory, Corr et al 2004). Across species the BIS has been associated with the septo-hippocamal system, with more recent conceptualizations additionally emphasizing the role of the amygdala (Gray and McNaughton 2000;Adrián-Ventura et al 2019) and -in humans -medial prefrontal regions engaged in the assessment of distal threat and emotion regulation (Comte et al 2015;Fung et al 2019).…”

Worry is associated with inefficient functional activity and connectivity in prefrontal and cingulate cortices during emotional interference

“…The fronto‐parietal network (FPN), particularly the DLPFC, is known to be important for attentional control (Braver, Paxton, Locke, & Barch, ; Sylvester et al, ) and supports “top‐down” attention by maintaining attentional sets (Braver et al, ; MacDonald, Cohen, Stenger, & Carter, ; Miller & Cohen, ). Increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity has also been reported in anxious individuals when Tasks require executive control (Comte et al, ; Etkin, Prater, Hoeft, Menon, & Schatzberg, ; Hajcak, McDonald, & Simons, ; Simmons et al, ). Increased ACC activity is thought to act as a compensatory mechanism in response to Task‐related conflict or interference (Sylvester et al, ).…”

“…Increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity has also been reported in anxious individuals when Tasks require executive control (Comte et al, 2015;Etkin, Prater, Hoeft, Menon, & Schatzberg, 2010;Hajcak, McDonald, & Simons, 2003;Simmons et al, 2008).…”

“…Increased ACC activity is thought to act as a compensatory mechanism in response to Task-related conflict or interference (Sylvester et al, 2012). Furthermore, inefficient Task-related DLPFC and ACC activation in high-anxious individuals may be a consequence of suboptimal or reduced functional connectivity between these regions when increased attentional control is required (Basten et al, 2011;Comte et al, 2015). However, fMRI studies have also shown that trait anxiety is not associated with increased (inefficient) recruitment of frontal attentional control mechanisms (Bishop, 2009;Forster, Nunez Elizalde, Castle, & Bishop, 2015), a finding that appears inconsistent with the prediction made by ACT (Eysenck et al, 2007).…”