Neural circuitry underlying the interaction between emotion and asthma symptom exacerbation.

ABSTRACT: Asthma, like many inflammatory disorders, is affected by psychological stress, suggesting that reciprocal modulation may occur between peripheral factors regulating inflammation and central neural circuitry underlying emotion and stress reactivity. Despite suggestions that emotional factors may modulate processes of inflammation in asthma and, conversely, that peripheral inflammatory signals influence the brain, the neural circuitry involved remains elusive. Here we show, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, that activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula to asthma-relevant emotional, compared with valence-neutral stimuli, is associated with markers of inflammation and airway obstruction in asthmatic subjects exposed to antigen. This activation accounts for > or =40% of t

SUBMITTER: Rosenkranz MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1197272 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature