Differential functional connectivity of rostral anterior cingulate cortex during emotional interference

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Neuroscience

Background:

• The rostral-ventral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) is crucial for emotional processing.
• Its functional connectivity with regions like the insula and striatum during emotion regulation is not well understood.
• Deficits in emotion regulation associated with anxiety and depression may involve altered rACC connectivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how functional connectivity of the rACC changes during emotion regulation.
• To examine if these changes differ in individuals with anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, or anhedonic depression compared to controls.
• To explore the role of rACC in integrating emotional, interoceptive, and cognitive functions.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
• Participants included non-patients reporting high anxious apprehension (AP), anxious arousal (AR), anhedonic depression (AD), or none (CON).
• Participants performed a task involving indicating ink color of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant words while regulating emotional responses.

Main Results:

• During emotion regulation (ignoring unpleasant words), AD and CON groups showed increased rACC connectivity with the anterior insular cortex (AIC), putamen, caudate, and ventral pallidum.
• AP and AR groups exhibited decreased rACC connectivity, with AP showing a more significant reduction than AR.
• These findings suggest differential patterns of rACC functional connectivity based on emotional regulation capacity and psychological state.

Conclusions:

• The rACC integrates interoceptive, emotional, and cognitive functions through its connections with the insula and striatum during effective emotion regulation.
• Anxiety, particularly anxious apprehension, may involve a failure of this integration, indicated by reduced rACC connectivity.
• Altered rACC functional connectivity may underlie emotion regulation deficits in anxiety and depression.