Gender Difference in Attentional Bias Toward Negative and Positive Stimuli in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Kinney, Kerry L.; Boffa, Joseph W.; Amir, Nader

doi:10.1016/j.beth.2016.06.002

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Most patients often suffer from a series of physical or psychological somatic symptoms, such as restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and sleep disturbances (American Psychiatric Association, ). Considering the high morbidity, severe distress (Molent et al, ), high financial burden, and low remission rate after treatment compared to those for other anxiety disorders (Christine Buff et al, ; Kinney, Boffa, & Amir, ), the pathological mechanisms underlying GAD should be elucidated to facilitate more effective therapeutic development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic changes of amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Cui

Sheng

Chen

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

115

101

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Previous neuroimaging studies have mainly focused on alterations of static and dynamic functional connectivity in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, the characteristics of local brain activity over time in GAD are poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the abnormal time‐varying local brain activity of GAD by using the amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method combined with sliding‐window approach. Group comparison results showed that compared with healthy controls (HCs), patients with GAD exhibited increased dynamic ALFF (dALFF) variability in widespread regions, including the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, striatum; and left orbital frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, temporal pole, inferior temporal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus. The abnormal dALFF could be used to distinguish between patients with GAD and HCs. Increased dALFF variability values in the striatum were positively correlated with GAD symptom severity. These findings suggest that GAD patients are associated with abnormal temporal variability of local brain activity in regions implicated in executive, emotional, and social function. This study provides insight into the brain dysfunction of GAD from the perspective of dynamic local brain activity, highlighting the important role of dALFF variability in understanding neurophysiological mechanisms and potentially informing the diagnosis of GAD.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic changes of amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Cui

Sheng

Chen

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

115

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They found that there was a gender difference in the relationship between attentional bias and social anxiety, and we further showed that this is due to the gender difference in DD from threat. Several studies have supported the fact that there are significant gender differences in the relationship between attentional bias and emotional processing (Merritt et al, 2007; Tan et al, 2011; Tran et al, 2013; Kinney et al, 2016), but they do not focus on the relationship between social anxiety and a subcomponent of attentional bias to threat. Our results provide further evidences for gender differences in attentional bias among socially anxious individuals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies have included male and female subjects, but the relationship between attentional bias and social anxiety may be different for males and females. Evidence has supported there is significant gender difference in attentional bias to threat among individuals with anxiety, including high trait anxiety, general anxiety, and social anxiety (Merritt et al, 2007; Tan et al, 2011; Tran et al, 2013; Kinney et al, 2016). For example, in a study involving 82 adolescents, Zhao et al (2014) found significant positive correlation between the level of social anxiety and attentional bias to social threat for males, but not for females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in a study involving 82 adolescents, Zhao et al (2014) found significant positive correlation between the level of social anxiety and attentional bias to social threat for males, but not for females. This may be due to the different brain structure and emotional cognitive processing of men and women (Zhao et al, 2014; Kinney et al, 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender Differences in the Difficulty in Disengaging from Threat among Children and Adolescents With Social Anxiety

Zhang

Xie

et al. 2017

Front. Psychol.

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There is some research showing that social anxiety is related with attentional bias to threat. However, others fail to find this relationship and propose that gender differences may play a role. The aim of this study was to investigate the gender differences in the subcomponents of attentional bias to threat (hypervigilance and difficulty in disengaging) among children and adolescents with social anxiety. Overall, 181 youngsters aged between 10 and 14 participated in the current study. Images of disgusted faces were used as threat stimuli in an Exogenous Cueing Task was used to measure the subcomponents of attentional bias. Additionally, the Social Anxiety Scale for Children was used to measure social anxiety. The repeated measures ANOVA showed that male participants with high social anxiety showed difficulty in disengaging from threat, but this was not the case for female participants. Our results indicated that social anxiety is more related with attentional bias to threat among male children and adolescents than females. These findings suggested that developing gender-specific treatments for social anxiety may improve treatment effects.

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“…More recently, although not studied in humans, BPA exposure has been shown to downregulate ten-eleven translocation ( Tet ) in the testes of Gobiocypris rarus [202]. Given that the TET protein family plays a critical role in regulating DNA methylation and in development [203], the downregulation of TETs due to BPA exposure may relate to methylome maintenance, and further studies need to look at the changes in genes that have roles in establishing DNA methylation.…”

Section: Epigenetic Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Environmental Toxicants: Epigenetics as an Underlying Mechanism

Tran

Miyake

2017

International Journal of Genomics

123

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The increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), calls for more research into the identification of etiologic and risk factors. The Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesizes that the environment during fetal and childhood development affects the risk for many chronic diseases in later stages of life, including neurodevelopmental disorders. Epigenetics, a term describing mechanisms that cause changes in the chromosome state without affecting DNA sequences, is suggested to be the underlying mechanism, according to the DOHaD hypothesis. Moreover, many neurodevelopmental disorders are also related to epigenetic abnormalities. Experimental and epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to prenatal environmental toxicants is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, there is also evidence that environmental toxicants can result in epigenetic alterations, notably DNA methylation. In this review, we first focus on the relationship between neurodevelopmental disorders and environmental toxicants, in particular maternal smoking, plastic-derived chemicals (bisphenol A and phthalates), persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals. We then review studies showing the epigenetic effects of those environmental factors in humans that may affect normal neurodevelopment.

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Gender Difference in Attentional Bias Toward Negative and Positive Stimuli in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Cited by 23 publications

References 31 publications

Dynamic changes of amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Dynamic changes of amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Gender Differences in the Difficulty in Disengaging from Threat among Children and Adolescents With Social Anxiety

Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Environmental Toxicants: Epigenetics as an Underlying Mechanism

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