Anxiety-potentiated amygdala-medial frontal coupling and attentional control.

ABSTRACT: Anxiety disorders can be treated both pharmacologically and psychologically, but many individuals either fail to respond to treatment or relapse. Improving outcomes is difficult, in part because we have incomplete understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying current treatments. In a sequence of studies, we have identified 'affective bias-related' amygdala-medial cortical coupling as a candidate substrate underlying adaptive anxiety (that is, anxiety elicited by threat of shock in healthy individuals) and shown that it is also chronically engaged in maladaptive anxiety disorders. We have provided evidence that this circuit can be modulated pharmacologically, but whether this mechanism can be shifted by simple psychological instruction is unknown. In this functional magnetic re

SUBMITTER: Robinson OJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4931603 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature