The Altered Somatic Brain Network in State Anxiety

Abstract

Highly anxious individuals often show excessive emotional arousal, somatic arousal, and characteristics of mental illness. Previous researches have extensively investigated the emotional and cognitive biases of individuals with high anxiety, but overlooked the spontaneous brain activity and functional connections associated with somatic arousal. In this study, we investigated the relationship between state anxiety and the spontaneous brain activity of the somatosensory cortex in a non-clinical healthy population with state anxiety. Furthermore, we also explored the functional connections of the somatosensory cortex. We found that state anxiety was positively correlated with the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) of somatic related brain regions, including the right postcentral gyrus (somatosensory cortex) and the right precentral gyrus (somatic motor cortex). Furthermore, we found that state anxiety was positively correlated with the connections between the postcentral gyrus and the left cerebellum gyrus, whereas state anxiety was negatively correlated with the connectivity between the postcentral gyrus and brain regions including the left inferior frontal cortex and left medial superior frontal cortex. These results revealed the association between the anxious individuals’ body-loop and state anxiety in a healthy population, which revealed the importance of somatic brain regions in anxiety symptoms and provided a new perspective on anxiety for further study.

Ketamine’s modulation of cerebro-cerebellar circuitry during response inhibition in major depression

“…We also observed that reduced PPI-connectivity between the cerebellum and the SMN is associated with higher levels of anxiety symptoms at baseline. This result is in line with previous studies which showed disrupted activity of the postcentral gyrus ( Li et al, 2016 , Li et al, 2019 ) and its connectivity with the left cerebellum was associated with impairments in the state of anxiety ( Fales et al, 2008 ). This result supports that cerebellar-SMN circuitry can be used to differentiate particular features of depression as may be further examined in future studies.…”

The Ncoa7 locus regulates V-ATPase formation and function, neurodevelopment and behaviour

“…We further demonstrate that loss of Ncoa7 causes altered dendritic outgrowth, a reduction in the number of CB interneurons and the numbers of inhibitory synapses; in addition, homozygous mutants exhibited anxiolytic behaviour in two behavioural assays and altered sociability in the three-chamber test. Multiple brain structures are involved in the regulation of anxiety and social behaviours, such as the amygdala, thalamus, hippocampus and cortical areas [61][62][63][64][65]. Our developmental expression data show that Ncoa7 is found in all of these key neuroanatomical regions, in addition to those related to olfaction, a fundamental feature of mouse exploratory activity, anxiety and sociability [62].…”

Functional Alterations in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Anxiety Disorders

“…Individuals with high trait anxiety and those diagnosed with anxiety disorders share common disruptions in brain activation and connectivity [ 64 , 65 ]. Individual differences in state anxiety, although not detected in this study, have also been correlated with increased fluctuations of activation in the right postcentral gyrus and right precentral gyrus and with connectivity between the postcentral gyrus and left cerebellum gyrus [ 21 , 66 ]. The relationship between DN salience-motor FT connectivity and anxious symptoms may be shown in other populations with anxious symptoms [ 67 ].…”

“…Furthermore, in patients with anxiety disorders, the cerebellum has shown aberrant intrinsic connectivity with the salience network [ 16 , 17 ], default-mode network (DMN) [ 18 ], and central-executive networks (Hilber et al) [ 19 ] during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such alterations in cerebellar connectivity are also evident in non-clinical populations with high state or trait anxiety [ 20 , 21 ], suggesting that the cerebellum has a role in anxiety susceptibility.…”