University of Louisville
The neural mechanisms of anxiety regulation: A new approach to emotion regulation
Grade Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
Neuroscience
Minor
Philosophy
Institution 23-24
University of Louisville
KY House District #
036
KY Senate District #
36
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Dr. Brendan Depue
Department
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology
Abstract
Anxiety disorders afflict up to one third of the population. While anxiety research to date has primarily focused on the role of the amygdala, emerging perspectives suggest that a small but crucial basal forebrain region, known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), may offer valuable insights into understanding and treating anxiety disorders. In 2019, the research team investigated the role of the BNST in anxiety processing, with results illustrating that the amygdala exhibits preferential engagement during a certain and predictable fear condition and is functionally connected to regions underlying stimulus processing and motor response, while the BNST exhibits preferential engagement during an uncertain and unpredictable anxiety condition and is functionally connected to prefrontal regions underlying interoception and rumination — suggesting that the amygdala and BNST play distinct but complementary roles during threat processing, with the BNST specializing in the detection of potential threats to promote hypervigilant monitoring.
A primary mechanism of impaired functioning in anxiety disorders is emotion dysregulation, which has been another key focus in research. However, most emotion regulation (ER) paradigms employ explicitly cued pictorial stimuli (such as negative scenes or faces that induce disgust), when anxiety, by definition, is a sustained response to uncertain or unpredictable prospective threats. As such, this study sought to specifically investigate anxiety regulation. 30 participants underwent high-resolution fMRI while performing a novel task — a hybrid of the 2019 study’s task and a canonical ER task — in order to: 1) investigate whether the BNST can be effectively downregulated during uncertain anticipation, and 2) characterize the prefrontal regulatory mechanisms involved. Results revealed that anxiety regulation was associated with significant BNST downregulation, heightened activation of prefrontal regulatory regions (specifically, the right middle frontal gyrus [rMFG] and right inferior frontal gyrus [rIFG]), and increased connectivity between the rIFG and BNST, coupled with simultaneously reduced connectivity among attentional circuits. These results provide the first evidence that the BNST can be volitionally downregulated and further suggest that anxiety regulation modulates higher-order attentional systems to putatively reduce vigilance.
The neural mechanisms of anxiety regulation: A new approach to emotion regulation
Anxiety disorders afflict up to one third of the population. While anxiety research to date has primarily focused on the role of the amygdala, emerging perspectives suggest that a small but crucial basal forebrain region, known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), may offer valuable insights into understanding and treating anxiety disorders. In 2019, the research team investigated the role of the BNST in anxiety processing, with results illustrating that the amygdala exhibits preferential engagement during a certain and predictable fear condition and is functionally connected to regions underlying stimulus processing and motor response, while the BNST exhibits preferential engagement during an uncertain and unpredictable anxiety condition and is functionally connected to prefrontal regions underlying interoception and rumination — suggesting that the amygdala and BNST play distinct but complementary roles during threat processing, with the BNST specializing in the detection of potential threats to promote hypervigilant monitoring.
A primary mechanism of impaired functioning in anxiety disorders is emotion dysregulation, which has been another key focus in research. However, most emotion regulation (ER) paradigms employ explicitly cued pictorial stimuli (such as negative scenes or faces that induce disgust), when anxiety, by definition, is a sustained response to uncertain or unpredictable prospective threats. As such, this study sought to specifically investigate anxiety regulation. 30 participants underwent high-resolution fMRI while performing a novel task — a hybrid of the 2019 study’s task and a canonical ER task — in order to: 1) investigate whether the BNST can be effectively downregulated during uncertain anticipation, and 2) characterize the prefrontal regulatory mechanisms involved. Results revealed that anxiety regulation was associated with significant BNST downregulation, heightened activation of prefrontal regulatory regions (specifically, the right middle frontal gyrus [rMFG] and right inferior frontal gyrus [rIFG]), and increased connectivity between the rIFG and BNST, coupled with simultaneously reduced connectivity among attentional circuits. These results provide the first evidence that the BNST can be volitionally downregulated and further suggest that anxiety regulation modulates higher-order attentional systems to putatively reduce vigilance.