When worry may be good for you: Worry severity and limbic-prefrontal functional connectivity in late-life generalized anxiety disorder

Wu, Minxian; Mennin, DS; Ly, Maria; Karim, Helmet T.; Banihashemi, Layla; Tudorascu, DL; Aizenstein, HJ; Andreescu, Carmen

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2019.07.022

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, in one there was a complex relationship between worry and connectivity, suggesting that connectivity between limbic and cortical areas was maximal at an intermediate level of worry. 66 In the other study, 67 anxiety was associated with greater activation in parahippocampal areas and precuneus. In general this is in keeping with attenuation of activity in, and connectivity with, processing areas seen in younger patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Two studies 67,68 examined functional connectivity associated with emotional reactivity in late-life GAD compared with healthy controls. Neither study found any significant differences between the GAD group and the controls, using a faces and shapes task.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both studies examined the data using the factor of worry, as measured by the PSWQ. Wu et al 67 found that there was a significant interaction between group and ‘worry’ on connectivity between the left amygdala and left orbitofrontal cortex, MPFC and both anterior cingulate cortices, and on connectivity between the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the left orbitofrontal cortex. When worry was examined across groups, there was a U-shaped curve, whereby connectivity between limbic and cortical areas was optimal at medium levels of ‘worry’.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…63,66 In one of the studies which examined brain activation, 66 the hypothesised difference from controls was seen, with an increase in activation of part of the amygdala, accompanied by a decrease in activation of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex in older patients with GAD. Two further studies showed no difference between patients with GAD and controls, 67,68 in brain activation and connectivity. However, in one there was a complex relationship between worry and connectivity, suggesting that connectivity between limbic and cortical areas was maximal at an intermediate level of worry.…”

Section: Specific Issues In Late-life Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 89%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Emotional cognition and effective interpretation of affective information is an important factor in social interactions and everyday functioning, and difficulties in these areas may contribute to aetiology and maintenance of mental health conditions. In younger people with depression and anxiety, research suggests significant alterations in behavioural and brain activation aspects of emotion processing, with a tendency to appraise neutral stimuli as negative and attend preferentially to negative stimuli. However, in ageing, research suggests that emotion processing becomes subject to a ‘positivity effect’, whereby older people attend more to positive than negative stimuli. Aims This review examines data from studies of emotion processing in Late-Life Depression and Late-Life Anxiety to attempt to understand the significance of emotion processing variations in these conditions, and their interaction with changes in emotion processing that occur with ageing. Method We conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines. Articles that used an emotion-based processing task, examined older persons with depression or an anxiety disorder and included a healthy control group were included. Results In Late-Life Depression, there is little consistent behavioural evidence of impaired emotion processing, but there is evidence of altered brain circuitry during these processes. In Late-Life Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, there is evidence of interference with processing of negative or threat-related words. Conclusions How these findings fit with the positivity bias of ageing is not clear. Future research is required in larger groups, further examining the interaction between illness and age and the significance of age at disease onset.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Specific Issues In Late-life Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 89%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, one study has indicated that attentional abilities and processes can be negatively influenced by states of elevated worry, whereas less frequent worrisome thoughts were associated with improved attentional performance (Fox et al, 2015). Wu et al (2019) also found that when comparing those of varying worry tendencies, moderate worry maximized engagement of limbic-prefrontal functional connectivity whereas severe worry negatively impacted emotional regulation abilities, supporting the theory that moderate levels of worry (as opposed to persistent worry tendencies) can have functional benefits.…”

Section: The Multifaceted Nature Of Worrymentioning

confidence: 77%

Diverse Aspects of Worry among Younger and Older Adults: A Multifaceted Approach

Granier¹,

Segal²

2021

PSYCH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aims of this study were to examine age-differences regarding various worry components among younger and older adults and to characterize the relationships between worry domains and anxiety. A total of 311 younger adults (18 -30 years) and 100 older adults (65+ years) completed seven worry and anxiety questionnaires, focusing on worry content, worry severity, and responses to worry. A series of 2 × 2 ANOVAs was computed to examine differences in worry and anxiety related to age and gender. Interaction effects indicated that gender differences among younger adults were significantly more pronounced than older adults with women reporting greater worry and anxiety than men. Main effects of age indicated that younger adults reported greater worry than older across all worry domains. Worry and anxiety measures were found to be highly correlated across all domains. Findings indicate that worry is fundamentally related to anxiety across age groups and that a variety of aspects of worry should be considered to understand the breadth of worry's influence on anxiety. Additionally, age and gender have unique relationships with worry and anxiety and interact to complicate individuals' symptom profiles. Thus, worry is a multifaceted construct that is crucial to understanding anxiety in general and warrants multifaceted assessment and intervention.

show abstract

Manual segmentation of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the dorsal and ventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis using multimodal 7 Tesla structural MRI: probabilistic atlases for a stress-control triad

Sibbach,

Karim,

et al. 2023

Brain Struct Funct

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) is uniquely capable of proximal control over autonomic and neuroendocrine stress responses, and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) directly modulates PVN function, as well as playing an important role in stress control itself. The dorsal BNST (dBNST) is predominantly preautonomic, while the ventral BNST (vBNST) is predominantly viscerosensory, receiving dense noradrenergic signaling. Distinguishing the dBNST and vBNST, along with the PVN, may facilitate our understanding of dynamic interactions among these regions. T1-weighted MPRAGE and high resolution gradient echo (GRE) modalities were acquired at 7T. GRE was coregistered to MPRAGE and segmentations were performed in MRIcroGL based on their Atlas of the Human Brain depictions. The dBNST, vBNST and PVN were manually segmented in 25 participants; 10 images were rated by 2 raters. These segmentations were normalized and probabilistic atlases for each region were generated in MNI space, now available as resources for future research. We found moderate–high inter-rater reliability [n = 10; Mean Dice (SD); PVN = 0.69 (0.04); dBNST = 0.77 (0.04); vBNST = 0.62 (0.04)]. Probabilistic atlases were reverse normalized into native space for six additional participants that were segmented but not included in the original 25. We also found moderate to moderate–high reliability between the probabilistic atlases and manual segmentations [n = 6; Mean Dice (SD); PVN = 0.55 (0.12); dBNST = 0.60 (0.10); vBNST = 0.47 (0.12 SD)]. By isolating these hypothalamic and BNST subregions using ultra-high field MRI modalities, more specific delineations of these regions can facilitate greater understanding of mechanisms underlying stress-related function and psychopathology.

show abstract

When worry may be good for you: Worry severity and limbic-prefrontal functional connectivity in late-life generalized anxiety disorder

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

Diverse Aspects of Worry among Younger and Older Adults: A Multifaceted Approach

Manual segmentation of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the dorsal and ventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis using multimodal 7 Tesla structural MRI: probabilistic atlases for a stress-control triad

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

When worry may be good for you: Worry severity and limbic-prefrontal functional connectivity in late-life generalized anxiety disorder

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

Diverse Aspects of Worry among Younger and Older Adults: A Multifaceted Approach

Manual segmentation of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the dorsal and ventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis using multimodal 7 Tesla structural MRI: probabilistic atlases for a stress-control triad

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Manual segmentation of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the dorsal and ventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis using multimodal 7 Tesla structural MRI: probabilistic atlases for a stress-control triad