Prefrontal-amygdala connectivity in trait anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder: Testing the boundaries between healthy and pathological worries

D Porta-Casteràs; MA Fullana; D Tinoco; I Martínez-Zalacaín; J Pujol; DJ Palao; C Soriano-Mas; BJ Harrison; E Via; N Cardoner

Journal article

Prefrontal-amygdala connectivity in trait anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder: Testing the boundaries between healthy and pathological worries

D Porta-Casteràs, MA Fullana, D Tinoco, I Martínez-Zalacaín, J Pujol, DJ Palao, C Soriano-Mas, BJ Harrison, E Via, N Cardoner

Journal of Affective Disorders | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.02.029

Abstract

Background: Current brain-based theoretical models of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) suggest a dysfunction of amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal cortex emotional regulatory mechanisms. These alterations might be reflected by an altered resting state functional connectivity between both areas and could extend to vulnerable non-clinical samples such as high worriers without a GAD diagnosis. However, there is a lack of information in this regard. Methods: We investigated differences in resting state functional connectivity between the basolateral amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (amygdala-vmPFC) in 28 unmedicated participants with GAD, 28 high-worriers and 28 low-worriers. We a..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Ben Harrison Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by the Carlos III Health Institute (PI12/0136, PI12/00273), a LIIRA Program Grant (WS717052), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grant (1025619), and the 2017 AGAUR 1292. EV was supported by an Endeavour Research Fellowship, provided by Australian government, the Department of Education (I.D. 3993_2014) and a Rio Hortega fellowship, provided by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Spain (CM15/000839). MAF was supported by the Carlos III Health Institute/FEDER grant 1 (PI16/00144). IM-Z was supported by a P-FIS grant from the ISCIII (FI17/00294). CS-M was supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII (CPII16/00048). BJH was supported by a (NHMRC) Clinical Career Development Fellowship [I.D. 1124472]. CIBERSAM are initiatives of ISCIII. The funding agencies did not have a role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, management, analysis or interpretation of the data.