Location-dependent threat and associated neural abnormalities in clinical anxiety

Suarez-Jimenez and colleagues use a shock and safe zone experiment with fMRI imaging to examine how pathological anxiety disorders are manifested in the brain. Their findings suggest that safe and dangerous zones within the experiment alter activation in different brain regions. Anxiety disorders are characterized by maladaptive defensive responses to distal or uncertain threats. Elucidating neural mechanisms of anxiety is essential to understand the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. In fMRI, patients with pathological anxiety (ANX, n = 23) and healthy controls (HC, n = 28) completed a contextual threat learning paradigm in which they picked flowers in a virtual environment comprising a danger zone in which flowers were paired with shock and a safe zone (no shock). ANX compared with HC showed 1) decreased ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior hippocampus activation during the task, particularly in the safe zone, 2) increased insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation during the task, particularly in the danger zone, and 3) increased amygdala and midbrain/periaqueductal gray activation in the danger zone prior to potential shock delivery. Findings suggest that ANX engage brain areas differently to modulate context-appropriate emotional responses when learning to discriminate cues within an environment.

Automated summary

The study used fMRI imaging to investigate how pathological anxiety disorders affect brain activation during a contextual threat learning paradigm. Results showed that anxiety disorder patients engage different brain areas to modulate context-appropriate emotional responses, particularly in safe and dangerous zones within the experiment.